Past Program Archive

Everyone has a bright idea now and again.What’s challenging-- and what’s also far more precious-- is the process of transformation.

How does an idea transform from a moment of imagination into something real?

The process of bringing something new into the world demands perception, initiative, persistence, and creativity. Taken together, its called innovation, and it’s one of the most elusive goals for a creative person. Where heartfelt emotions, dogged labor, or clever execution may make a person or business successful, innovation demands something else. It might concern the creation of a new, tangible product, or it might have to do with the intangible practicalities of a business plan, a financial strategy, or a philosophical concept. Innovation is less a function of the specific thing that's created than it is a function of how well this new thing integrates with the world.

In this dynamic multimedia presentation, Michael will explore the process of innovation from a variety of angles. Drawing from his experience as a filmmaker and media advisor, Michael will present historical examples, tangible metrics, and (most importantly) structured thinking about the process of taking casual observations and turning them into tangible innovations.

Our session will have an interactive element but will break the traditional structure with an innovative approach to sharing experiences following Michael's presentation.

The creative joy and accomplishment involved with innovation.

About Our Facilitator:

Michael Starobin

Michael Starobin is President and Creative Director at 1AU Global Media, LLC, a multimedia production and consulting company. His award-winning work has played at The Smithsonian, The United Nations, congressional and other federal presentations, national television outlets, and corporate venues. Two of his films have been finalists at the Jackson Hole Science Film Festival.

In 2006, Michael led the development of technology and procedures for delivering the world’s first movie created specifically for spherical screens. The resulting film, called FOOTPRINTS, continues to play around the world. Time Magazine named FOOTPRINTS one of the best inventions of the year. Michael and his team used these techniques to produce the principal film presented by the United States delegation to the Copenhagen climate summit.

Michael’s international production experience has taken him to Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center for a joint US/Japanese launch of a vital research satellite. Recently he accumulated more than a hundred hours flight time on NASA’s P3 aircraft over Greenland on a mission to measure ongoing changes in polar ice, and not long after he traveled to Chile for a month-long journey with scientists making similar low altitude research flights over Antarctica.

In addition to working with spherical and conventional screens, Michael and his team have produced for 3D systems, ultra-high resolution wide aspect video walls, and live events. His most recent work has been with 360-degree video technologies, including augmented reality components, demonstrated at a recent launch event from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in November2017.

Earlier in his career, Michael worked in the Washington news corps, overseeing daily news and video distribution for Conus Communications, a national media company. Before assuming a leadership position at Conus he started the company’s science and technology desk in Minneapolis, reporting on a wide range of subjects. Prior to Conus, he worked in Public Radio as a producer.

Michael graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota with a degree in anthropology and honors work in biomedical ethics.His weekly blog on creativity appears on Mondays at 1auglobalmedia.com

Appreciation for using current psychological and neuroscientific concepts to better understand (and lead) our followers

Limits of today's mind and brain concepts as tools to influence performance and results.

About Our Facilitator:

Dr. Thomas Hoffman

Thomas Hoffman is a physician scientist who completed a 20-year career in the United States Public Health Service at the FDA and National Institutes of Health as a research team leader, regulator, and science administrator.

Thomas combines his public and private sector experience in R&D and biomedical management with a thorough knowledge of classical psychoanalysis, contemporary psychology, and management theory.

He is expert in individual and team dynamics, management science, immunology, and neuroscience.

He is a clinician with a private practice, an academic, and a practitioner, having founded the consulting firm PScience Associates that focuses on biotechnology and high-tech enterprises.

He currently serves as the Co-chair, Committee on Corporate and Organizational Consultants, American Psychoanalytic Association.

Alan Stein Jr.

He has spent the past 15 years working with the highest performing basketball players on the planet, including NBA superstar Kevin Durant and the #1 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, Markelle Fultz. Alan now teaches organizations how to utilize the same strategies in business that elite basketball players and teams use to perform at a world-class level.

He is passionate about developing genuine leadership, authentic team cohesion and true mental toughness, and works relentlessly to educate and inspire people to take immediate action to improve their mindset, habits, happiness and success.

Contact Information:

Alan Stein Jr.

Fifty percent of the employees studied by Gallup have left a job because they couldn’t stand their manager.

Effective leadership at work requires understanding the people you want to lead.

To understand others, you first need to understand yourself.

Understanding people requires both intellectual and emotional understanding; it engages both head and heart.

Dr. Maccoby will describe techniques for developing this understanding.

At this interactive meeting, using personality questionnaires that Dr. Maccoby has used with hundreds of managers and participants in executive programs at Oxford University’s business school, we will examine our different styles of leadership, their strengths, and areas that need work.

[You received the personality questionnaire in an earlier email – this session will be more meaningful for you if you are able to complete and return the questionnaire – and bring a copy of the last page with you to the LBMD meeting on September 8th]

Take-Aways From This Session:

⦁Different leadership styles & indicators to help identify them

⦁Certain leadership styles which are most appropriate for specific environments

⦁ Shortcomings of different leadership styles in certain situations

About Our Facilitator:

Dr. Michael Maccoby

Michael Maccoby is globally recognized as an expert on leadership. He is president of The Maccoby Group in Washington, DC.

For over 35 years, Dr. Maccoby has been consultant and coach to leaders in global corporations, unions, universities, the World Bank, and the State and Commerce Departments of the U.S. Government and the U.S. Army. He has worked in 36 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Dr. Maccoby became known internationally both for his books on leadership and his pioneering projects to improve the workplace. His book The Gamesman (1976) was a bestseller and the first study of the new entrepreneurs and managers in high-tech industry. The Leader (1981) followed, presenting as an ideal, managers who developed both their organizations and people for a changing world. Why Work? Motivating the New Work Force (second edition, 1995), presents a new theory of motivation to fit the changing values of knowledge workers. It has been translated into 10 languages. Maccoby is co-author of Agents of Change: Crossing the Post Industrial Divide (2003), which describes his leadership of AT&T’s Workplace of the Future in the 1990s. His 2007 book, The Leaders We Need, And What Makes Us Follow, examines leadership from the point of followers as well as leaders. His 2015 book Strategic Intelligence, Conceptual Tools for Leading Change is based on his organizational experience and learnings from working with Russell Ackoff and W. Edwards Deming.

Dr. Maccoby’s article “Narcissistic Leaders: the Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons”, January, 2000 won a McKinsey Award, which recognizes the two best Harvard Business Review articles published each year. It was the basis for the book, The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership, published in 2003. In 2007, Harvard Business School Press published the paperback with a new introduction, re-titled Narcissistic Leaders: Who Succeeds and Who Fails.

Dr. Maccoby was facilitator of the National Coalition on Health Care in developing specifications for a comprehensive U. S. health care policy and is on the board of the NCHC. He has been a consultant on the management of change at health care centers, and received grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the study “Leadership for Health Care in the Age of Learning”, which was published by the Association of Academic Health Centers in 2001. He is the senior author of Transforming Health Care Leadership, A Systems Guide to Improve Patient Health, Decrease Costs and Improve Population Health. (2013.)

Dr. Maccoby worked as a consultant, researcher, and lecturer in Sweden from 1973-2005. His book Sweden at the Edge (1991) described some of his work. In 2007, King Carl XVI Gustaf named him a Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star.

From 1978-90, Dr. Maccoby was director of the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has taught at Harvard, University of Chicago, Cornell University, University of California, l’Institutd’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Oxford as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, the Brookings Institution and the Washington School of Psychiatry where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. He received a B.A. in Social Psychology, and a Ph.D. in Social Relations, from Harvard. He also studied philosophy at New College, Oxford, and psychoanalysis with Erich Fromm and graduated from the Mexican Institute where he was a training analyst. With Fromm he wrote Social Character in a Mexican Village (1970, reissued in 1996). He has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, American Anthropological Association, Society for Applied Anthropology and the National Academy of Public Administration. He is a member of the boards of The Albert Shanker Institute and he coaches leaders at Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, homes for orphaned and abandoned children in Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Peru.

Contact Information:

Dr. Michael MaccobyPresident

The session will provide an overview of the unique history and roles and responsibilities of the District of Columbia’s independent Chief Financial Officer and the opportunities it provides for change management in government.

The independent CFO is a position created out of the functional bankruptcy of the District in the mid-1990s and is a remnant of the Congressional appointed Control Board.

The position is appointed by the Mayor, confirmed by the District Council, and approved by Congress to serve a five- year term and provides all areas of financial oversight for the District.

The focus of the discussion will provide an overview of how the experiences of good government - from lessons learned in Phoenix, Arizona - are being applied to Washington, D.C.

During his 24-year tenure in Phoenix, Arizona, the city was a five-time recipient of the All American City Award and two-time winner of the Carl Bertelsmann Award for being the best-run city government in the world.

Mr. DeWitt will share experiences in defining strategic objectives, strategic initiatives and the development of an overall strategic plan for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO).

This has led to the necessity to change to a culture based on accountability and continuous improvement.

Culture change is very difficult in any business and can be even more challenging in government.

The steps, experiences, and results of the journey over the past three years of culture change, driven by new technology, new business processes, training, and change management needs, will be discussed as the OCFO strives to be a best-in-class financial organization for District government.

Take-Aways From This Session:

⦁Critical elements of successful organizational cultural change

⦁What are the drivers of cultural change in an organization

⦁ Lessons-learned which are applicable to private sector

About Our Facilitator:

Jeffery S. DeWitt

Jeffrey S. DeWitt is the chief financial officer (CFO) for the District of Columbia and is responsible for the District’s finances, including its approximately $13.8 billion budget, the majority of which ($8.2 billion) is generated from local revenue sources. He also manages the city’s $6.6 billion capital improvement plan budget.

Mr. DeWitt was appointed to this position by Mayor Vincent C. Gray and confirmed by the city council to complete Natwar M. Gandhi’s five-year term through June 2017. Mr. DeWitt was reappointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser and confirmed by the District Council for a full term through June 2022.

As the independent CFO, Mr. DeWitt manages the District’s financial operations, which include more than 1,000 staff members in the tax and revenue administration; the treasury, comptroller and budget offices; the DC Lottery, economic/fiscal analysis and revenue estimation functions, and all District agencies.

In addition, Mr. DeWitt provides financial management and oversight of the United Medical Center, the University of the District of Columbia, and the Washington Convention and Sports Authority (EventsDC).

He is also responsible for coordinating with congressional committees and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget staff that oversee District affairs. He regularly interacts with the financial community, including rating agencies, regarding the District’s financial matters.

Previously, Mr. DeWitt served as CFO for the city of Phoenix, the 6th largest city in the United States, with a $3.4 billion annual budget and nearly 15,000 employees. There he managed a $7 billion debt portfolio and more than $2 billion in investments. He was a member of the City of Phoenix Employees Retirement Board, the Phoenix Community Development Investment Corporation, the Phoenix Downtown Hotel Corporation and Arena Development Board.

As CFO for the District of Columbia, Mr. DeWitt sits on the boards of the Washington Convention and Sports Authority (EventsDC) and Destination DC.

Jeffrey DeWitt is a member of the Government Financial Officers Association (GFOA), the American Accounting Association (AAA), Association of Government Accountants (AGA), and the American Water Works Association (AWWA).

He holds a master's degree from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Illinois University.

Contact Information:

Jeff DeWittChief Financial Officer

Government of the District of Columbia

Phone: 202-727-2476

July 7, 2017

Do Rules Make the Leader - OR - Does the Leader Make the Rules?

We simply LOVE to read articles or blog posts listing the best of things - like Top 10 Lists, or 25 Best Practices, or Leadership Rules of World-Class Leaders.

We are also fond of inspirational leadership quotes from the thought-leaders - concise stories of the success factors.

Almost every book about Leadership contains the author's collection of leadership elements...boiled down to poster captions or brief mantras for chanting while administering Leadership.

In this facilitated interactive session, we will look at some of the popular practitioners' favorite rules, as well as some of our own favorites as well (remember to bring your favorite Leadership rule or quotation to add to the discussion) - including the 50 Rules of Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS.

With this information as a backdrop, and the innovative imagination of LBMD participants, we will attempt to determine the critical elements of successful leadership - if such a result is possible. A target goal is to create a Most Effective Leadership Rules list.

Take-Aways From This Session:

⦁Critical elements of successful leadership

⦁The existence of one-size fits all Leadership -does it really exist?

⦁Scalable Leadership Rules for different size/types of organizations

About Our Facilitator:

Jack Gates

Jack says technology is how we do things – not the things we do them with...those are just the tools. He develops new technology (the how) to get spectacular results using the latest tools (the things). In addition to working with clients to increase sales and improve operations, his assignments include mentoring, strategic planning, acquisition assessment, fundraising strategy, executive mentoring, and even took on the role of general manager of a country club.

Jack’s experience as a CEO, Director, and Chairman includes the disposal of 3 organizations and leading 2 organizations that were the target for acquisition – mergers and acquisitions up close and personal. He initiated the establishment of the captioning industry association, served on the FCC Post 9/11 Emergency Communications Task Force, and is actively working with students at his alma mater - The Smith School of the University of Maryland. He ran an international non-profit organization and has headed numerous boards and councils in business and community sectors.

Gates blogs about evolutionary changes in business, leadership, and better communications. He periodically posts to Sales Labs Posts, Open Source Leadership, as well as Through the Browser and numerous discussion groups. Distribution of Jack’s posts is typically 250,000+ readers – however, his post When Will We Get Back to Normal hit a distribution record of 1.3 million recipients.

Jack founded and leads the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland, a membership group of experienced leaders - meeting monthly since February 2008; led the National Captioning Institute – a $22 M organization – as President & CEO; had senior executive roles with Union Memorial Hospital, Towers Perrin, Watson-Wyatt, and PRC in entertainment, healthcare, and human resources industries; and has hands-on experience in operations, human resources, finance, client development, association governance, and marketing/sales. He served for 10-years on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Smith School and taught business and technology classes as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland for 8 years.

He is actively involved in several organizations providing intergenerational programs – activities bringing together individuals from older and younger generations to learn from each other and to expose each generation to the magnificence and accomplishments of the other generation. Jack served on the Board of Directors of Interages for over a decade, chaired the Strategic Planning Committee, and led its merger into the JCA, another non-profit with intergenerational programs. He is a mentor and Board Advisor to the HOCHA Foundation, a start-up established in June 2014, which works with elderly participants to capture their life stories through reminiscing interviews by college students, creating a legacy memory book for the participant and their family.

Gates is currently focused on mentoring start-ups, and the entrepreneurs that launch them, which have an interesting mission and a unique approach to achieving results. In addition, Jack is COO of Sales Lab and is active in groups, such as DC Tech for start-ups and the Google technical user and developer group which use technology to gain efficiency.

Jack earned a BS from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA (Finance) from Southeastern University in Washington, DC.

Email: jacklgates@leadershipbreakfast.org

Twitter: @jacklgates

Google+ Profile: +JackGates

Suppose you wake up one day, and discover that someone you've never heard of is delivering the same product, the same value or the same service as you. For free...

This is not a wild hypothetical exercise. This has happened countless times to companies large and small. It’s called “disruption,” and it’s not a question of “if” but “when.” As a leader, do you know what you would do?

For many people, when faced with a challenge, the instinct is to resort to what has worked in the past. Unfortunately, familiar tactics won’t equip us to handle the complexity of disruption. We need new leadership skills, new tools, and new ways of thinking and doing. We call this Break●Away Leadership.

Join us for a hands-on, roll-up your sleeves experience that shifts the agenda from competition- based to value innovation, and shows you how to lead your organization into the increasingly complex disruption-based world.

Break●Away creates a new platform for designing your firm’s future. This session will challenge you to consider the new power position you can create.

Take-Aways From This Session

In this session, we will:

Move your customer focus from loyalty to empowerment

Change your operational focus from efficient to intelligent

Reset your playing field

Create a digital agenda

Break●Away will give you the opportunity to explore these concepts and develop a new leadership model based on proven innovation best practices that are embedded in our Breakaway Leadership Framework.

About Our Facilitators:

Karen Maples

David Schulman

Karen MaplesKaren Maples is the founder and President of Myutiq – an innovation strategy firm that helps companies build innovation capacity for long-term viability and growth. Karen also serves as Chief Catalyst of FutureForward, a national and global initiative to inspire women scientists to commercialize their technology and to accelerate the number of women-led firms at the cutting edge of emerging and advanced technologies. Ms. Maples is the co-creator of The Pursuit of UniquenessSM, a repeatable innovation process. And she created DIVERGESM, a complementary methodology focused on the leadership skills needed for innovation to flourish. Ms. Maples has written extensively about innovation for a variety of publications including SmartCEO and Enterprising Women. Recent articles include “The Dynamic of Innovation in Growing Your Business” and “Challenge for Thought” about open innovation platforms.

Ms. Maples was recognized by Enterprising Women Magazine as one of the top women entrepreneurs in North America. She holds a B.B.A. and M.B.A. from the College of William and Mary. She has completed postgraduate studies in strategic planning and marketing strategy at Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. When she’s not installing Innovation Ecosystems she loves to play tennis and go to the ballet.

David SchulmanDavid Schulman is Chief Cloud Strategist for ForceCounsel, a technology consulting firm helping business executives build a roadmap aligning their technology investments with their business strategy. In addition to requirements gathering, system selection and implementation, ForceCounsel specializes in assisting organizations in evolving their digital platform from operations and information management to value creation.

David has worked in aerospace, healthcare, communications, associations and nonprofits. Prior to launching ForceCounsel, he launched, built and sold two business technology firms. PracticeOne, a cloud-based service provider enabling physicians to manage patient care, scheduling and accounting for over 500 physician practices nationwide. Prior to that, he launched Business Engineering, a Microsoft managed services provider which he ran for 15 years. When weather permits, David teaches sailing, guided by the principle that while you can't change the wind, you can adjust your sails.

David Schulman

Chief Cloud Strategist

Or watched one of your clients agonize over losing one of her top people because she hadn’t spent time developing them?

Can you recall the quick demise of Coca-Cola’s former CFO turned CEO years ago, who was over-promoted without consideration of his true skills and qualities?

These experiences are both painful and costly: last year, CareerBuilder found that 41% of companies surveyed said that a bad hire in the previous 12 months had cost them at least $25,000.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh estimates that his past bad hires have cost Zappos “well over $100M.”That’s a lot of shoes!

Further, according to an article in HBR last December, “A study of the world’s 2,500 largest public companies shows that companies that scramble to find replacements for departing CEOs forgo an average of $1.8 billion in shareholder value.”

The ability to identify and develop great talent is not a "nice to have," it is essential to great leadership. This session will help you learn strategies that the pros (like me) use to identify and develop A-Player talent for current and future roles.

Take-Aways From This Session

In this session, we will:

Learn how to use Scorecards, not job descriptions, to assess fit for a current role or future opportunity

Develop interview techniques to get the information we need, rather than the information they want to give us

Ann is President of Llumos, LLC, a Washington, DC-based women’s owned small business.

Throughout her 18-year career, she has leveraged extensive experience as a consultant and business leader to help organizations successfully select, grow, and retain talent. Ann is an expert in executive selection, coaching, team development, and women’s leadership; she also speaks regularly on strategies to enhance leadership and organizational success.

As a trusted advisor, she brings candor and critical insights to high-stakes situations to yield breakthrough results. Prior to Llumos, Ann served as Principal at Green Peak Partners and as Managing Director at TalentQuest, a leadership consulting and performance management firm in Atlanta. She began coaching while still in graduate school; her first client was the General Counsel of a Fortune 1000 company. Since then, she has coached over 100 executives, and completed several coaching-related programs, including Coaches Training Institute and Human Performance Institute’s Corporate Athlete program.

Ann has a unique background that blends psychology, business, and an endurance athlete mindset. She is high-energy, caring yet no-nonsense, and action oriented, focusing coaching work on sustainable, positive change.

Ann has worked with clients in the Fortune 1000 as well as smaller companies and nonprofits, including: Bayer Healthcare, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Coldwell Banker, Cousins Properties, Danaher Corporation, Fortive Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Mizuno USA, the Paperboard Packaging Council, TimBar Manufacturing, Turner Broadcasting, Vera Bradley, and Vital Voices. Ann attained a BA from the University of Michigan, and a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology and an MBA from Widener University.

She is a licensed psychologist and member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Society of Consulting Psychology, the Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology, the US Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and the Alexcel Group.

An Ironman triathlete, Ann and her husband Dave often use the sport of triathlon to raise money for Team in Training and Back on My Feet. They are also active supporters of Vital Voices. When not engaged in insane hobbies, they like to travel and to cook.

Contact Information

Ann Bowers-Evangelista

President

202-642-6880

Our lives mostly consist of running from one task to the next, pushing ourselves way beyond our energetic limits. No matter how hard we work at getting more organized and proficient with managing our calendars, we’re still left feeling frustrated and drained at the end of the day.

That’s because we’ve got it all backwards. When we shift our focus from trying to manage time and start managing our energy, we’re able to harness our personal and professional power and unleash the potential in those around us.

Join Mina Fies in this interactive session, as she shares innovative, yet practical, tools that empower us all to live an aligned life.

Take-Aways From This Session

How to align physical environments with our personal energetic needs

Identify and honor energy rhythms for peak productivity

Secrets to creating and maintaining energetic boundaries with others

Don’t miss this interactive and eye-opening session that will leave you in-action and empowered to run your day like a boss.

Mina Fies is the Founder and CEO of Reston-based Synergy Design & Construction and author of The Renovation Roadmap™ Her innovative approach to home remodeling and the client experience fueled her company’s success despite starting in 2008 against formidable economic circumstances.

Mina is often recognized for her trailblazing efforts, has won multiple design and construction awards, and had a home featured on the Reston Home Tour. She loves to use her training in Interior Alignment® and as a Certified Green Professional (CGP) to help others embrace the spaces around them to live the healthy, happy lives they’ve always wanted.

As past president of the Greater DC Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Mina’s passion lies in fostering leadership and innovation in others. She is a sought-after speaker and is often featured in national, local, and online media outlets.

703-766-6333

Scientific studies show that stories help us understand and remember concepts and facts.

Human brains expect information to be delivered in stories.

That's why fables, stories, and literature have stood the test of time. Parents tell the story of "The Boy who Cried Wolf" when they want their children to learn the importance of not lying or playing tricks.

Leaders who inspire people to action use the power of story to persuade, connect and motivate.

Sally Strackbein will cover some of the types of stories that you can tell to be a more credible, more charismatic, and more convincing leader.

Sally Strackbein inspires people to discover, clarify and express their value through speaking, writing, and storytelling.Her presentations, workshops, and coaching help her clients create and deliver messages that motivate, educate, or sell.

Sally Strackbein

Phone: 703 - 262 - 0361

Neuroplasticity: How Leaders Can Learn to Grow and Rewire their Brains to Achieve Break Through Results

In today’s hectic business world, understanding brain science and Neuroleadership is increasingly critical for personal, professional and organizational success.

In this dynamic and interactive presentation, Wendy Swire will focus on the exciting area Neuroplasticity – which is the brain’s ability to create new neural connections – to help achieve breakthroughs.

The ability to literally "rewire your brain" has tremendous applications for senior executives, leaders, and managers in any organization.

Wendy Swire has worked as an executive and leadership coach for over 20 years.

She will also draw upon her extensive background in the field, as head of the DC Neuroleadership Group and a member of the prestigious Society for Neuroscience.

You will learn how to create new neural connections for yourself, your team and respond to increased demands.

Take-Aways From This Session

You will learn the following three specific insights to apply Neuroplasticity:

What are the most common myths of brain plasticity.

The role of Hebb's Rule (neurons that wire together fire together).

How to turn the “ON” switch in the brain for learning, memory and habit formation -- that can be used to help your employees, teams, associates.

Wendy Swire is an author, speaker, executive coach and Neuroleadership consultant based in the Washington, DC area. Throughout her 20 years of experience, she has worked with over 1,000 leaders as an executive coach at all levels – from C-Suite to emerging millennials.

Wendy has been active in the field of neuroscience and Neuroleadership since 2009 when she started the DC Neuroleadership Group (former through the Neuroleadership Institute). Wendy has presented workshops and training seminars on the application of brain science to audiences ranging from Fortune 50 executives, executive coaches, congressional staff members, health care industry leaders and others. She is a member of the prestigious Society for Neuroscience and works with neuroscientists to ensure her workshop material utilizes the latest brain science findings.

She works with cross-cultural and international clients and groups, including delivering a five-day leadership course for Foreign Service Officers and nationals throughout the world. Prior to forming Swire Solutions, Wendy worked as an international economist for the Office of Management and Budget and the US Treasury Department and as a banker on Wall Street.

She is the Co-Author of Anytime Coaching: Unleashing Employee Performance, which has become an essential reference guide.

Wendy was trained in negotiation and conflict resolution at Harvard Law School where she subsequently was hired as a research and teaching assistant at Harvard’s Program on Negotiation. She also served as Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins Carey Graduate School of Business teaching negotiation and conflict resolution. She received her Master’s Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts/Harvard Universities) and her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Mount Holyoke College. Wendy is married and the mother of two sons. She is a founding board member of the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County and supports the NICL School in Leogane, Haiti where she has visited and volunteered.

Career Highlights:

Coached over 1000 leaders, from C-Suite (CEO, CFO, SES), mid-level executives to millennials and new managers

Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins Carey Graduate School of Business

Developed and delivered leadership and conflict curriculum for over 10 federal agency programs

Designed and Delivered over 20 strategic planning sessions for senior leadership teams

Swire Solutions, LLC

Phone: 301 - 652 - 1143

We don't even know they exist, and how they drive us through our day. We learn many more attention patterns. We get so used to those that we think we are seeing the world as it really is.

Attention patterns have been called a variety of things during the last few decades; the gestalt, and your input filters, among others. They are meant to shorten the time it takes for you to understand your immediate situation and execute your best possible next move...often in an emergency.

If your attention patterns aren't actually tuned to your real world, however, they won't prompt the move you actually need to make in a given moment. And the longer you have been using these patterns, the less likely they are to be tuned to your present situation. After all, almost all of us hear daily complaints about the rapid rate of change in the world these days. Maybe you make some of them.

In our session, we'll examine a primary childhood attention pattern and how it generates much of our experience in leadership roles.

We will then extend those implications into other business applications, such as cracking long-standing problems, and learning how to lead change by changing the attention patterns of your crew.

Take-Aways From This Session

After this session, you will:

Understand how communally-held attention patterns contribute to and often lock in a corporate culture.

Be able to identify key parts of an attention pattern that need to be adjusted in order to effect a needed corporate culture change.

Be able to draft a short set of steps, for everyone to follow to help them adjust their personal attention pattern, for each key part of the pattern that creates a problem in/for your corporate culture.

About Our Facilitator:

Tom Meylan, Ph.D.

Dr. Meylan is an astrophysicist by training who directed an international research center for NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center.

He left the NASA environment to enter private sector IT consulting.

Dr. Meylan is presently building a data science practice at AboutWEB, LLC, a HUB Zone Certified Small Business.

Get innovative approach to capitalizing on the positive effects of coming changes

Move from fear or reluctance regarding change to enthusiastically embracing it

About Our Facilitator:

Gwen Kinsey

Gwen Kinsey, President of GK Network helps transformational leaders incorporate innovative leadership systems and tools so their organizations are adaptive as well as effective.

Gwen believes that “our capacity to stay relevant into the future comes from how well we engage others… our ability to collaborate, network for ideas, and facilitate the development and diverse experience of others.” Gwen knows that transformational leaders need more than motivated employees. They need talented people excited by the opportunity to create new solutions.

Before beginning her leadership development practice in 2010, Gwen held progressive sales and top management positions during a 17-year leadership career in the television industry. Her former employer called on her to serve as President and General Manager of 4 of the 10 stations they owned. A key to Gwen’s portability was her strength developing people of all experience levels, building strong teams and innovating digital initiatives.Business highlights include:

Innovating digital business models adopted by the group’s other stations.

Turning around a poor performing station that increased news ratings, won prestigious journalism awards and subsequently sold for high multiples.

Transforming sales teams that beat their market competition by generating more new, local advertising revenue during declining advertising markets.

Improving talent recruitment, training, employee engagement, and developing managers who were promoted throughout the company.

Areas of expertise:

·Seeding innovative work cultures

·Employee engagement

·Culture change specifically geared to developing new solutions

Gwen is a certified coach (ACC) by the International Coaching Federation and is a member of the National Speaker’s Association. She is accredited to use emotional social intelligence assessments by the Hay Group in Boston. Gwen is a graduate of Temple University with a BA in Radio, Television and Film.

Contact Information

The conference room lights dim. Your throat begs to clear. The din in the room is muffled. The eyes of the CEO and executive team lock onto you.

What happens next is truly a miracle.

Inside their heads the brains start to behave strangely. They begin to sync up with you. A spell is woven between you and the company’s leadership. Inside the brains your message is copied and transferred to memory. Words, images, sounds make synaptic connections with business reality.

Images, visions, ideas, structures, words, wonder begin to form giving life to the miracle.

Develop your value proposition in the session and validate it in group discussion

Achieve the “customer’s line of sight connection between your value proposition, brand and strategy

About Our Facilitator:

Paul Schmitz

Paul Schmitz coaches’ senior executives with a fierce desire to learn and grow. His clients are committed to turn difficult situations (and opportunities) into success, His work motivates senior leadership to develop high potential staff to become leaders. Clients learn how to better engage and motivate employees to achieve positive change outcomes. We partner with leaders to measure success using their own evidence based metrics.

Dr. Schmitz is an evidence based executive coach. He has accumulated a body of best business practices from his nearly 30 years of executive and team coaching. His clients include major manufacturing, chemical, financial, transportation, pharmaceutical and aviation companies. His government clients include Department of Defense, Federal agencies and State and Local government executives. Many situations evolved into multi-year agency wide coaching and business facilitation.

He honed his leadership coaching and facilitation skills as a Chair for The Executive Committee (TEC—now Vistage). He was a former Professor at University of Missouri, Adjunct Professor for Central Michigan University, guest lecturer at National Defense University and Industrial College for the Armed Forces. His volunteer work includes numerous boards and elective office. For fun, he is a Docent at the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum, private pilot, photographer and loves to travel.

Lowell Nerenberg

For the past 11 years Lowell ("Coach Lowell") Nerenberg has been an executive leadership, management and team coach, mentor, and consultant. He is committed to helping leaders achieve profound and enduring breakthroughs in leadership and management awareness, competence, and effectiveness.

Thirty years ago, Lowell founded and led Mid-Atlantic region-based Computer Graphics Distributing Company (CGD) for eleven years, during which CGD became #144 on the Inc. 500 list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America. After co-founding a similar distribution firm in New England, Lowell sold CGD in a merger and roll-up with five other regionals to form a national distribution company. Later the same year the merged group issued an IPO on NASDAQ and soon thereafter acquired the New England-based company also. Lowell remained with the public company as VP of Marketing.

In many ways, CGD was unique in the technology distribution world. It was inspired by a powerful shared purpose and guided by core values and principles. An article about the company, “How I Built a National Firm with Culture and Purpose,” appeared in the Baltimore and Washington editions of SmartCEO magazine at bit.ly/CGDmyturn.,

In addition to his experience as a CEO, investor, and entrepreneur, Lowell has had extensive training and experience in advanced interpersonal communications, neuroscience, mindful leadership, stress reduction, human potential, emotional awareness and intelligence, and other advanced approaches to enhancing one’s performance and alignment with others.

Lowell is a graduate of Temple University. He and his wife, Bev, live in the DC area, and have two sons and three grandchildren.

We all live in a dark, enclosed space with our only outside contact the tiny electrical impulses transmitted from our body’s sensory resources through billions of wire-like threads of protein to our imprisoned mind. And because the wealth of information available to those corporeal channels is far beyond the capacity of any mind to integrate and incorporate this flood of data, every new piece of information that comes to us must pass an inflexible set of requirements to be granted asylum.
Fortunately for those of us whose task it is to encourage our business prospects and vendors and employees and colleagues to consider new courses of action, there are similarities among these seemingly inflexible requirements that make it possible to tailor the messages we formulate and deliver to our audiences that will substantially increase the likelihood of their welcome reception.
This presentation will examine one or two of those standards and the requirements for their passage, in the hope that the products or services you have worked so hard to develop will, by these communication adjustments, find sympathetic audiences and, thereby, improve the products and services to which I, as a result of your success, will be given access.
As business leaders we reach most of our opinions through involved processes of experimentation, trial and error, failure and thought, a more complex and time consuming process than we realize. And when those carefully developed points of view are mature, they seem to be solid and dependable guiding principles. Of course, we also pride ourselves on our flexibility and willingness to consider new perspectives – but there is often less pride and more prejudice in that belief.
And so, although we can recognize the difficulties we sometimes encounter when we are asked to give up dearly held views and accept new ideas or service alternatives, how tempting it can be to expect our audiences to enthusiastically endorse our plan, buy our product or change the way they conduct their business simply because we tell them it’s better than what they’re doing now. Without a careful consideration of how to get your better idea past those ever vigilant gatekeepers, your efforts will probably receive a bland ‘thank you’ for your trouble and you won’t even know why your admirable plan was given so little consideration.
I look forward to the meeting on September 9th.
Bob Keiper

About Our Facilitator:

Bob Keiper

No business talent or skill is more valuable than effective communication.

My 25 years as a coach, speaker and instructor in business communication began with years of experience in professional theater as a writer, actor and director where I learned to captivate and motivate the listeners.

Now, in applying those same skills to business audiences, I know the values presented must be expressed and clarified from the listener’s frame of reference.
To be compelling and memorable, the material must be organized to enter the audience’s awareness as a sequential series of logically related conceptual steps, in short in the form known as story.

Most business presentations fail in at least one of these two ways.

Finally, to hold the listener’s unwavering attention, the presenter’s behavior must be authentic and appropriate.

Contact Information

Bob Keiper

August 5, 2016Winning Leadership: Various Styles That Drive Organization Transformation

In the early 1990's, Frederick Taylor proposed the "One Right Way" to do work effectively for optimal productivity - and this method grew in popularity. Soon the "One Way" idea was applied from the assembly line to the executive suite.

Once the Hawthorne effect of change had lost its sparkle, observers realized that the "One Way" worked well for some applications and not well for others.

Especially when applied to leaders in their roles - since most organizations, markets, customers, and required resources are quite varied, logic points away from a “One Right Way" approach.

Leaders are as varied as the leadership situations they are responsible for. Winning Leaders - those who succeed in establishing, growing, and capturing market share - may be described in about a half dozen descriptive categories or styles.

This interactive session will have us examine a few of these styles, and will overlay the effectiveness of Emotional Intelligence as a tool to aid in the transformation, and subsequent leadership, of the organization.

Takeaways from the Session

The discussion should be lively and you will walk away with:

Primary styles winning leaders tend to adopt

What role Emotional Intelligence plays in a leader's effectiveness

Some notable examples of winning leaders for the styles discussed.

About Our Facilitator:

Art Medici

Art Medici has a diverse background as an executive leader in e-commerce, high tech, telecom and information companies. His experience spans startups, high growth small/mid cap firms and global leaders like Thomson Reuters and IBM.

As an operating executive, he has assembled top management teams, then mentored and motivated them to significant accomplishments. He has served on boards of directors, including NavTech GPS, Comtech, 1Efficiency, ICC and Logilent.

Art advises government contractors on taking advantage of that industry's rapid transition and consolidation trend. At Comtech, an IT provider to numerous government agencies, Art worked with the management team to build alliances that drove new business and increased revenue.

In the e-commerce space, as Director, CEO, COO of ICC, he completed four acquisitions and drove revenue from $20M to $90M while raising the share price significantly. He has helped to shepherd family businesses through generational transfer while positioning them for continuing growth.

Earlier in his career, as US SVP of Marketing at $12B Cable & Wireless PLC, Art was responsible for growth by building alliances with Cisco and IBM among others as well as new product development for the ISP service acquired from WorldCom/MCI.

Currently, Art is a partner with the Newport Board Group, an advisory firm that works with CEOs and Boards to help them move their firms from No Man’s Land by accelerating growth and preparing for exit.

Contact Information

Art MediciPartner

Phone: 703 217 1948

When we think of good to great leaders, do we focus on contemporary times or are we looking back to the past? Who is the first name that comes to mind? Historic or current? As with the great composers, when considering the great leaders, we tend to look to the past for suitable candidates. However, there are many superior leaders in the current day who significantly moved markets, revitalized operations, and created innovative changes to traditional approaches - like Bezos (Amazon), Musk (Tesla Motors/SpaceX), Brin/Page (Google/Alphabet), and Kalanick/Camp (Uber).

Much has been written about leadership by great minds, like Demings, Drucker, Maccoby, Bennis, Peters, and hundreds of others (a number of our members included!). Plenty of concept, scholarly thought, and distilled experience & knowledge to guide leaders to become better at their role and more successful in their actions.

HOWEVER, could there be negative doppelganger of leadership 'wisdom' being consumed by folks in these roles resulting in ineffective or incongruent principles? How do organizations emphasize superior customer experience to their customers, but fail to deliver it since they do not have supportive procedures, trained people, and technology in place to create the intended CX? Do individuals assume that the skills necessary to be a good leader come with the assigned title - that when appointed CEO the tenets of leadership are magically included as new knowledge. Some just assume that leadership is supposed to be intuitive - anyone can do it, just apply logic, planning, and vision to your daily ritual? Any of these paths lead to a sad result.

As enticing as the possibility of a mirror image may be why becoming a good leader is so difficult, the real answers more likely lie a number of practical gardens - what's the effect of new generations brought up in an overprotective environment on their ability to be contributing members teams and organizations. Hard to be effective in a competitive marketplace when not permitted to compete in games when growing up The raw material a leader must work with has changed over time and the leader requires more communications, time, and effort to develop managers and employees to acceptable performance levels.

Technology has altered the content of jobs and eliminated a significant number entirely- it has removed much of the routine and repetitive tasks, and has caused much of the work to be 'dumbed down' (requiring lower skill levels). This results in less pride and satisfaction in the work done, which in turn affects quality & productivity.

Work satisfaction statistics have been collected by the Conference Board since 1987 - when 61.1% of workers were satisfied with their job. Studs Terkel, in his 2004 book Working found that the satisfaction factor had dropped to under 49% and recently it has dropped to 47.7%. Top reasons given for the continued deterioration are: lack of meaningful work; 'quality' of coworkers; money.

Add to these factors the effect of global markets, worldwide financial recession, population unrest, and others seeking advantage by evil means - we have quite a witches brew bubbling away on the fire. Leaders must tame this miasma to achieve desired results and keep the organizations healthy and strong.

Join us on July 8th for an interactive session to address the question: where do good leaders come from? By pooling our experience and knowledge we can give guidance to other leaders on the use of some fundamental tools which have been revised for the more complex set of variables we now face.

Takeaways from the Session

The discussion should be lively and you will walk away with:

A new look at effectively communicating the vision

Ways of anticipating unintentional consequences

Some thoughts on creating tactical and practical action plans.

About Our Facilitator:

Jack Gates

Jack says technology is how we do things – not the things we do them with...those are just the tools. He develops new technology (the how) to get spectacular results using the latest tools (the things). In addition to working with clients to increase sales and improve operations, his assignments include strategic planning, acquisition assessment, fundraising strategy, executive mentoring, and general manager of a country club.

Jack’s experience as a CEO, Director, and Chairman includes the disposal of 3 organizations and leading 2 organizations that were the target for acquisition – mergers and acquisitions up close and personal. He initiated the establishment of the captioning industry association, served on the FCC Post 9/11 Emergency Communications Task Force, and is active working with students at his alma mater - The Smith School of the University of Maryland. He ran an international non-profit organization and has headed numerous boards and councils in business and community sectors.

Gates blogs about evolutionary changes in business, leadership, and better communications. He routinely posts to Sales Labs Posts, Open Source Leadership, as well as Through the Browser and numerous discussion groups. Distribution of Jack’s posts is typically 250,000+ readers – however, his post When Will We Get Back to Normal hit a distribution record of 1.3 million readers.

Jack founded and leads the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland, a membership group of experienced leaders - meeting monthly since 2008; led the National Captioning Institute – a $22 M organization – as President & CEO; had senior executive roles with Union Memorial Hospital, Towers Perrin, Watson-Wyatt, and PRC in entertainment, healthcare, and human resources industries; and has hands-on experience in operations, human resources, finance, client development, association governance, and marketing/sales. He served on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Smith School and taught business and technology classes as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland for 8 years.

He is actively involved in several organizations providing intergenerational programs – activities bringing together individuals from older and younger generations to learn from each other and to expose each generation to the magnificence and accomplishments of the other generation. Jack served on the Board of Directors of Interages for over a decade, chaired the Strategic Planning Committee, and led its merger into the JCA, another non-profit with intergenerational programs. He is mentor and Board Advisor to the HOCHA Foundation, a start-up established in June 2014, which works with elderly participants to captured their life stories through reminiscing interviews by college students, creating a legacy memory book for the participant and their family.

Gates is with Sales Lab as its COO and is active in numerous groups, such as DC Tech for start-ups and the Google technical user and developer group.

Jack earned a BS from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA (Finance) from Southeastern University in Washington, DC.

Twitter: @jacklgates

Google+ Profile: +JackGates

Tony Mayo, returning with his second program for the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland, will facilitate a discussion of the proposition that it is:

more profitable,

more durable, and

more respectful

to construct work environments which encourage desired behaviors than to demand desired behaviors or punish undesirable behavior. We anticipate a lively conversation about the impact and practice of leadership that creates clearings with powerful, predictable characteristics.

This session is inspired by Tony’s business-themed novel Crimes of Cunning: A comedy of personal and political transformation in the deteriorating American workplace.

Takeaways from the SessionThe discussion should be lively and you will walk away with:

Access to a calmer, more assured leadership style

Clarity about the environmental drivers of group behavior

Alternatives to power struggles, conflict, and manipulation.

About Our Facilitator:

Tony Mayo

Executive Coach toBusiness Owners & Their Teams

Tony Mayo is an experienced executive coach to business owners and their teams. He is a master of analogy and anecdote whose illustrations are as likely to come from his studies of brain science, high energy physics or eastern philosophy as from his years of management and sales in high-technology. Whether speaking from a platform, coaching one-on-one, or facilitating a workshop, Tony maintains a laser focus on his goal of helping people realize their dreams.

Tony earned his MBA from the University of Chicago (now, Booth School of Business) at age twenty-one, after three years each of high school and college. He immediately started a business that he sold in 1982.

Tony has worked with Arthur Andersen & General Electric, founded boot-strap and venture-backed start-ups, and taught at the college, graduate, and executive levels. Tony is the author of #1 bestsellers The Courage to Be in Community and business-themed novel Crimes of Cunning. He is also the sole inventor of US Patents 6,678,663 & 7,930,209. His most important activities today are family fun, working with top executives, and total health. All with one unifying purpose: to promote workplaces of humanity and prosperity where people can be productive and satisfied.

Contact Information

Tony MayoExecutive Coach toBusiness Owners & Their Teams

Reston, Virginia

T 202.905.2588

Why do most of the CEOs surveyed by McKinsey state that leadership training is useless or even destructive?

Why are fewer than one-third of the US employees engaged in their work?

In this interactive session, Dr. Michael Maccoby will provide answers to these questions and present the tools to strengthen leadership and employee engagement.

Takeaways from the Session

Participants will take-away a better understanding of the difference between leadership and management

How different types of leadership fit different contexts

What most motivates followers

How to engage and motivate the people leaders lead.

Audio Extra:Link to mp3 audio file - Dr. Maccoy on Strategic Intelligence interviewed by IBM Center for the Business of Government - michael_maccoby_abcd.mp3

About Our Facilitator:

Dr. Michael Maccoby

Michael Maccoby is a globally recognized expert on leadership who for 40 years has advised global leaders in businesses, governments, unions, universities and non profit organizations in 36 countries.

He is president of The Maccoby Group in Washington, D.C., which offers consulting, coaching, research, and leadership workshops.

He has a BA and PhD from Harvard University, where he directed the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development from 1970-90. He graduated from The Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis where he studied under Erich Fromm and with him wrote Social Character in Mexican Village.

He is author of The Gamesman, The Leader, Sweden at the Edge, Why Work?, Narcissistic Leaders, The Leaders We Need, lead author of Transforming Health Care Leadership, and author of Strategic Intelligence.

In appreciation of his work in Sweden, he was made Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star.

He is a fellow of the American Psychological and Anthropological Associations and the National Academy of Public Administration.

He has taught leadership at Oxford University’s Saïd School of Business for twelve years.

Contact Information

Dr. Michael Maccoby

Phone: (202) 895-8922

Fax: (202) 895-8923

Consistent accountability is crucial in the cockpit as well as in business.We hear the concept from time to time:“How can I make my people more accountable?”

But can we really “make” them accountable?

Randy will facilitate this tantalizing topic to explore some tried-and-true practices to create a culture of accountability.

He will present some recent trends in aviation, including CRM (Crew Resource Management) that have enhanced safety in flight by building clarity and accountability within the cockpit environment.

The same principles apply to growing, entrepreneurial businesses. We will explore “lessons from the cockpit” as they correlate to building a healthy and successful business.

Takeaways from the Session

Understand the concept for building a culture of accountability

Introduce proven tools that bring more clarity and accountability throughout organizations

Understand how high levels of “accountability” will enhance team performance (whether in business or in the cockpit)

About Our Facilitator:

Randy Taussig

Randy Taussig is an entrepreneur and has served on executive teams, managing sales and operations for privately held organizations ranging from $5M - $150M. His passion is helping business leaders reach their BIG business goals.

Randy’s entrepreneurial roots go back to 1860 when his great-great grandfather started two bakeries in Washington, D.C. which eventually grew into a $150 million molasses and sugar refining business (Sucrest Corporation) that produced some well-known products like Grandmas Molasses®, a staple for many bakers and a brand still available on the market today.

Randy joined the family business after graduating from the University of Delaware, working first in finance and then in marketing, sales and operations after earning his M.B.A. He continued to work at the company for over 10 years, helping grow the business both organically and through acquisition, which eventually led to its sale to a larger food conglomerate.

Later, he ran the marketing and sales for a $40M pharmaceutical packaging business, led the marketing and operations for a national trade association and built two consulting practices.

As founder of BlueCore Leadership, he now helps entrepreneurs simplify, clarify and achieve their vision.

Randy is also a private pilot who is passionate about flying, with over 1,500 flight hours accumulated both personally and for business.

Contact Information

Randy Taussig

Mobile: 703-489-7722

The nature of leadership is changing in today’s turbulent business world, as the old ways of working – command and control, hierarchical, long-term commitments – shift to more networked, project-based and short term arrangements.

This session will explore how leaders can lead effectively in this new organizational environment, with its ever-increasing need for speed, agility, productivity, and innovation.

Dr. Barry Dornfeld will draw on ideas from “The Moment You Can’t Ignore: When Big Trouble Leads to a Great Future,” co-authored with Mal O’Connor.

We will discuss translating these ideas into specific behaviors and practices for daily work, enabling individuals to see how their unique efforts contribute to the organization's performance as a whole.

In the end, work becomes more productive, effective, meaningful—and profitable.

(Click here for the chapter, “A Case of Conflicting Authority,’ to preview the book.)

Takeaways from the Session

Strengthening your authority by sharing it with others

Understanding others’ interests to advance shared goals

Using your internal network to foster future opportunities for creative institutional change, and for individual growth and advancement

Barry Dornfeld, Principal at CFAR, a boutique consulting firm, brings his expertise on organizational change, culture, and collaboration to his speaking and consulting work.

Trained as an anthropologist and documentary ﬁlmmaker with a PhD in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania, Barry is co-author of “The Moment You Can’t Ignore: When Big Trouble Leads to a Great Future” (www.unignorablemoment.com), and has published on social capital, digital media and public television.

Previously Dr. Dornfeld was faculty at New York University and chair of Communication Program at UArts in Philadelphia.

Phone: (215) 320 - 3225

This Leadership Breakfast of Maryland program will convey current neuroscientific formulations of “What is a Mind” and interactively seek ways in which these new understandings enhance our leadership capabilities.

More details: This session will involve a didactic presentation along with experiential components to explore basic concepts of Mind.

Thomas Hoffman, M.D.

Thomas Hoffman is a physician and laboratory scientist who completed a 20-year career in the United States Public Health Service at the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health as a research team leader, regulator, and science administrator.

Thomas combines his public and private sector experience in R&D and biomedical management with a thorough knowledge of classical psychoanalysis, contemporary psychology, and management theory. He is expert in individual and team dynamics, management science, and neuroscience. He has been a clinician with a private practice, an academic (Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business), and a practitioner, having founded the consulting firm, PScience Associates, which focuses on biotechnology, healthcare, and high-tech enterprises.

Thomas is married (Judith Kline Hoffman, LCSW) with two children, age 28 and 24. His outside Interests include: Yoga, Golf, Cinema & Theater, Culinary Arts, and The New York Times.

9419 Locust Hill Rd.

Bethesda, MD 20814

(301) 493 8630

To differentiate and distinguish your business in the age of smartphones, you need loyal, connected customers and inspired, aligned, engaged team members.

Now more than ever, we must matter and we must be authentic.

To avoid competing on price, or worse, being ignored, we must create compelling, repeatable WHY-based communications directed at the right internal and external audiences… always and at all touch points.

It’s time to change your game!

Cultivate engaged, aligned Team Members who pull your direction and stick around

Beth is a dynamic speaker and coach.

Beth serves as Communications Chair for the Exit Planning Exchange (XPX) DC. She has presented and conducted workshops at Wells Fargo, The Power Conference, XPX, the Virginia Women’s Business Conference, the American Marketing Association, Vistage International, and other C-Level Peer Advisory Roundtables, elite coaching teams, and nonprofits.

By making a profound impact on your business, Beth lives her WHY, and measures her success based on that impact.

An avid yogi, Beth also loves long walks, sunsets, sunshine, and time with friends and family.

Edwards facilitated his first topic on Personal Leadership to LBMD in March 2013, with rave reviews. He focused on goal setting and a powerful technique for “coming from” an outcome as a way of experiencing and envisioning your future.

In our December session, Edwards will facilitate our group through a 3-part exercise that will give you a unique perspective on your greatest talents, characteristics and attributes with a surprising twist.

He is currently conducting an ongoing research project to validate an unconventional premise point (which will be shared during the session), the implications of which will help improve our ability to embrace and benefit from our greatest assets and liabilities in a way that can help accelerate growth and pursuit of your personal purpose.

Takeaways from the Session

A unique perspective on your greatest talents, characteristics, and attributes

A Surprising Twist

Sharing some of the

findings from ongoing unique research project

About Our Facilitator:

Edwards Holliday

Atlantic

Leadership

Group

Edwards A. Holliday is president and founder of Atlantic Leadership Group, established in 1989 as a Franchise Partner of Leadership Management Inc. (LMI), a world leader in leadership development.

Edwards has an unbridled passion for producing results for Professional Advisors, primarily financial services teams, and accounting and legal practices. Edwards is the Advisor to Advisors of small, high producing teams committed to continuously growing, improving and transitioning their businesses. He coaches clients to achieving better results in increased client assets and revenue, while improving the franchise value of their businesses and helping them cultivate clients into raving fans who naturally refer more business. His clients include the major wirehouse firms, regionals and independents, and he frequently travels the East Coast.

His primary role is being the Advisor to Advisors of small, high producing teams committed to continuously growing, improving and transitioning their businesses. He drives results in increased client assets and revenue, improved clientele quality and developing raving fans. A longtime specialist in executive coaching, Edwards has experience in leadership development, strategic planning, productivity improvement, sales prospecting effectiveness and personal goal setting. For the past 26 years he has personally coached over 2000 individuals.

A longtime specialist in executive coaching, Edwards has as experience in leadership development, strategic planning, productivity improvement, sales prospecting effectiveness, and personal goal setting. For the past 26 years he has helped more than 2,000 individuals in different service businesses develop their leadership and management skills, as well as set and achieve business, personal and life goals.

4. Strategic referral prospecting within clientele and Centers of Influence.

Edwards lives in Clarksville, Maryland with his wife of 20 years, Melba, and their two daughters, Sarah (18), a UMD Terps starting freshman goalkeeper (undefeated Big10 Champs 2014-2015) and Elizabeth (14), a budding equestrian and soccer player. He enjoys making his wife happy by doing endless home improvement projects, supporting his kids’ athletic and school events, and motorcycling with the whole family.

According to Gartner research, by the year 2016, 89% of companies expect to compete on the basis of customer experience. That number was 36% just 4 years ago.

A traditional C-Suite consists of a CEO, COO, CIO, CMO, & CFO. Of these leaders, who is best suited to lead the quest toward a remarkable customer experience? Is it everyone's responsibility ... or is it no one's.

And what is Customer Experience anyway?

Customer Experience (CX) is the holistic, journey-based evolution of what was once known – albeit myopically – as customer service. Today’s smartest companies are paying attention to CX trends and making much-needed adjustments – some minor and some major.

Why? Because a remarkable customer experience leads to customer loyalty.

And customer loyalty leads to repeat and referral business, which is a preferred and sustainable path to profitability, and – as it turns out – a strengthened organizational culture.

Takeaways from the Session

In this interactive session, we'll be discussing the 9 key areas that are proven to be more than worthwhile investments; they are imperatives:

Tailored/Personalized Experiences

Balancing Hi-Tech and Hi-Touch

Relevant Advice and Learning

Employee Engagement

Voice of the Customer

Experiential Mindset

Anticipating Needs

Social Proof

Storytelling

About Our Facilitator:

Steve Dorfman

Before founding Driven to Excel, Inc in 2006, Steve spent 11 years as a sales consultant for a luxury automaker. His unwavering commitment to impeccable client service resulted in raving fans and consistent commissions. In fact, Steve went on to earn “Salesman of the Year” 7 years in a row, while maintaining a CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) rating in the top 1% nationally. He worked by appointment only as his repeat and referral business rocketed to unprecedented levels and ultimately translated into 70% of his sales.

Prior to 1995, Steve spent 8 rapid-growth years in the hospitality industry. Today, Steve Dorfman speaks, trains, and consults on the customer experience. He also hosts the We Mean Business! TV show and has conducted more than 90 interviews with thought leaders, top executives, and bestselling authors.

Leaders hire Steve to motivate, educate, engage, and develop their staff with interactive trainings and continuous development programs that result in: “Employee-owned” remarkable experiences for customers and clients; consistent referral business, and; repeat customer loyalty. In turn, as you might imagine, this translates into a strengthened culture and increased profits.

These are just a few questions that will be discussed. We will have the chance to tackle a few exercises that can help clarify leadership vision and corporate mission. This workshop will be highly interactive.

Takeaways from the Session

How SOAR and leadership relate

How clear is your leadership vision and message

Does your message move the organization closer to its goals

About Our Facilitator:

Mali Phonpadith

Mali Phonpadith is an author, speaker, podcaster, Founder of the SOAR Community Network and the Executive Producer of Tea with Mali TV.

In 2015, Mali was selected as a Belief Team partner in association with the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and Values Partnership.

Mali has over 18 years of marketing, sales, and business development experience. She has consulted with hundreds of entrepreneurs and visionaries to help them S.O.A.R. (See, Own, Articulate, Release) with their unique message and mission. Her team serves growing businesses by becoming their virtual marketing department and helping them solidify their infrastructure, processes and growth plan.

Mali has spoken at The Library of Congress, Smithsonian, University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, George Mason University, SAIC, SWAMFest, and many other venues.

Why do we amass capital and labor, energy and initiative, and declare that we’re capable of being in charge?

An obvious answer asserts that we just want to be profitable and need a team to get the job done.

A simplistic answer suggests that we have confidence in our experience, our ideas, and our selves.

An even simpler answer is that someone’s got to make decisions for a group, so it might as well be you.

This isn’t going to be that talk.

Great leaders throughout history embody something deeper, more resonant, and ultimately more powerful.

Having authority is one thing, but genuine leadership draws from less tangible sources, with roots into areas that extend far beyond ordinary organizational charts.

In this compelling and provocative presentation, filmmaker, writer, and media consultant Michael Starobin recasts leadership as less about steering your ship to a point on a map and more about a shared romantic pursuit to a place somewhere over the horizon.

This isn’t a talk about amorous romance.

Instead, it will present romantic ideals in the context of the word’s roots, namely storytelling, passions, and a desire for engagement with the world.

Michael will make a case for why most people need something beyond a paycheck to take a leader seriously. This will be a compelling multi-media presentation with references to art and culture, science and technology…and an event you won’t want to miss.

Takeaways from the Session

How romance relates to leadership

Romantic ideals of storytelling, passions, and desire for engagement

Leaders draw from a variety of sources - learn of the less tangible ones

About Our Facilitator:

Michael Starobin

Michael Starobin is President and Creative Director at 1AU Global Media, LLC, a multimedia production and communications consulting company.

His award-winning work has played at The Smithsonian, The United Nations, congressional and other federal presentations, national television outlets, and corporate venues. Two of his films have been finalists at the Jackson Hole Science Film Festival.

In 2006, Michael led the development of technology and procedures for delivering the world’s first movie created specifically for spherical screens. The resulting film FOOTPRINTS, which he produced and directed by commission from NASA, continues to play daily in four languages on spherical screens around the world.

Time Magazine named FOOTPRINTS one of the best inventions of the year. A few years later Michael and his team used these techniques to produce the principal film representing the American delegation at the international climate summit in Copenhagen.

Recently Michael produced a variety of multimedia work from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan to cover the launch of the GPM satellite.

Last year he flew at low altitude more than a hundred hours on NASA’s P3 aircraft over Greenland on a mission to measure ongoing changes in polar ice, and he recently returned from a month long trip to Chile where he travelled with scientists on similar low altitude research flights over Antarctica.

Michael's background includes work as Senior Producer for Television and Electronic Media at The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. In addition to working with spherical screens and conventional video, Michael and his team have produced for 3D systems, ultra-high resolution wide aspect video walls, and live events.

He recently headed editorial development of NASA's Visualization Explorer, an iPad app designed to showcase science news and feature stories at NASA.

Earlier in his career he worked in the Washington news corps, overseeing daily news and video distribution for Conus Communications, a national media company. Before assuming a leadership position at Conus he started the company’s science and technology desk in Minneapolis, reporting on a wide range of subjects. Prior to Conus he worked in Public Radio as a producer.

Michael graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota with a degree in anthropology and honors work in biomedical ethics.

His weekly blog on creativity appears on Mondays at 1auglobalmedia.com

This interactive session will explore various dimensions of conflict such as sources and possible interventions, assumptions and strategies for managing conflict.

Then we will explore characteristics of collaborative leaders and theory that future leaders, unlike the demagogues or managerial styles of the past, must have the skills and heart of a mediator to lead 21st century workplaces.

Takeaways from the Session

Strategies for handling conflict

Tips on facing and managing conflict

Courageous questions for communicating about conflict

About Our Facilitator:

Ellen Kandell

Ellen Kandell, is an attorney with over 30 years of diverse legal experience in the public and private sectors.

She is the President of Alternative Resolutions, LLC which provides mediation, group facilitation and training.

Her passion is working with organizations to resolve team and system wide conflicts.

She has mediated cases for Adventist HealthCare, Toyota, professional practices, private schools and local, state and federal agencies.

She is one of eight Maryland mediators featured on a statewide demonstration video of good practice.

She is an Adjunct Professor in the graduate human resources program at Catholic University of America.

Ellen is past president of the Maryland Council for Dispute Resolution and past co-chair of the ADR section of the Montgomery County Bar Association.

In 2014 she became certified by the International Mediation Institute.

Prior to opening her own firm in 1999, Ms. Kandell helped manage the ADR program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Sylvia Henderson

Sylvia Henderson—Implementation Strategist and creator of the Idea Success Network, a program of her training and development company Springboard Training—shares with us the four competencies of a Collaborative Facilitation Professional™.

This is a designation she coined and envisions consultants attaining to learn and put into practice the skills and tools necessary for leading without power to implement ideas…for your own practices and for your clients.

Contact Information

How many times have you looked at failure as evidence that you or the people you lead weren’t good at something?

Failure in one area can actually put you on the path to success in a completely new and surprising area, causing you to reinvent yourself and move forward with purpose.

This session will prompt you to look back through professional or personal failures (sounds fun, right?) and recognize their role in your current or future success (sounds much better!).

This session will also prompt you to think about the things in your work that bring you or your employees joy and to give yourself (and them) permission to spend more time on them.

Takeaways from the Sessio

How to re-think professional failures in your life

How to find your professional voice and sense of agency and purpose

How to help the people you lead find their own voice

About Our Facilitator:

Allison Shapira

Allison Shapira is a former opera singer and the president of Global Public Speaking, LLC, a company that helps people give confident and authentic speeches and presentations. Three years ago, she left a great job at Harvard, turned down a lucrative consulting gig in DC, and traveled around Europe with a guitar. She moved to Washington, DC to start her own company teaching public speaking and presentation skills.

Allison now teaches the Harvard Kennedy School and at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. She is a keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and executive coach who has worked with executives, diplomats, salespeople, bankers, government ministers, elected officials, engineers, lawyers, military veterans, and entrepreneurs.

Allison is a also TEDx speaker and songwriter who performs worldwide and uses music as a way to help others find their voice and their courage to speak. She has taught training programs in East Africa, South America, Europe, and the Middle East; she particularly enjoys helping women around the world learn communication skills so they can grow their business or run for political office. She also launched a new program to train military veterans in public speaking and networking skills to help them successfully find their next civilian job.

Allison holds a bachelor’s degree in Italian Literature from Boston University, a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and is a member of the National Speakers Association. She speaks Italian and Hebrew and has studied 9 other languages. She lives in Washington, DC and works with clients around the world.

Find Your Voice

The Wagoner's Lad

Where would your business (or your client’s business) be if the staff could:

Increase Their Impact

Advance the Organization’s Purpose

Sell More Products

Lead with More Conviction

Engage Their Teams

Perfect Their CHANGEspeak

Show Newfound Confidence?

The BOLDSpeak Leader can deliver all of those outcomes. Researchers say it’s not only WHAT you say, but HOW you say it that matters.

To be a BOLDSpeak Leader:

You are BELIEVABLE. I once interviewed Dolly Parton and she told me that she “invented” the character with wigs, fingernails, and whatever else. She wanted to make a mark to send money home to her very poor community. In spite of all the razzle – dazzle, she knows who she is, what she’s doing, and why she’s doing it. When you stand in front of your staff with a request or a motivational moment, you need to be Dolly Parton Believable.

You are ON -TARGET. We spend all of our time focusing on the words WE are going to say. What about focusing on what our audience HEARS, as we speak? Will they hear our message the same way we intended it, or will it just be adding another request to an already over worked team? What can you say that is designed specifically to lift your team UP from the daily grind. That will be ON-Target speaking that will make them want to listen.

BOLD Speak Leaders are LIKEABLE. Why is it so important and not just shallow to be likeable? Your listeners make up their minds about you in 9 seconds! If they don’t like you, theyflip the remote to another channel in their minds. Your body language can help immensely with your likability factor. If your gestures are open and warm, inclusive and humble, even the toughest message can be more likeable.

You are DARING in the sense of being valiant and heroic. You are sticking your neck out for them! You are offering to be their advocate, even when they know what you are saying may not be possible – YET! You are going to work for them in the face of many obstacles – cut budgets, smaller staffs, long hours. You are daring to fight for their needs.

The best news? You can model the BOLD Speak Leader for your staff. The CEO of the largest company of its kind in the lower 48, said, “Bold Speaking helped change the culture of our company. We speak like leaders. Now our team can follow.”

Takeaways from the Session

How Bold Speaking yields Bold Hearing

The Bold Speak Leader helps others better achieve their potential

Bold Speak Leadership is not limited to just brash, outgoing, “life of the party” individuals.

Jan Fox’s 4 EMMY AWARDS attest to her stellar 25 + year career as an Anchor/Reporter on local network news. But don’t ask her where she went to Journalism School. She’ll answer, “I LOVE LUCY!”

SMALL TOWN START

Jan likes to say she came from an old house in Shelbyville, Indiana, all the way to the White House and Hollywood, interviewing many celebrities and US Presidents. This is a life she never could have imagined. Her personal story makes you laugh, cry, and commit to the impossible.

BIG TIME CAREER

Jan earned 3 Emmys at WUSA TV9, CBS, in Washington, DC. At the NBC station in Portland, ME, Jan helped the news ratings jump from # 2 to # 1, with a huge 51% market share! A Portland News Director recently said, “Jan Fox is revered in Portland in perpetuity. She took the station from #2 to #1 back in 1986, and we never looked back!”

In Boston at ABC, she hosted an Emmy Award Winning talk show.

LIFE AFTER TV

Invitations to speak and coach kept coming, so Jan started her business: Fox Talks. She teaches CEOs, Business Leaders, Entrepreneur Groups, and Sales Teams to speak to their fullest potential.

PARTIAL LIST OF CLIENTS

Jan has keynoted and trained at many government agencies, plus Marriott, Verizon, ACCENTURE/Agilex, Billy Casper Golf, U.S. Coast Guard, DC Board of Trade, Vistage, SYMANTEC, Citrix, American Translators Association, National Association of Professional Organizers, National Association of Pet Cemetery and Crematoria Owners. She only has goldfish!

She has coached more than 35 TEDx Speakers and dozens of CEOs and Managers.

LONG LIST OF AWARDS

Jan has received many Civic and Media Awards: Best National Consumer Affairs Reporter of the Year - American Cancer Society Vision Award - Toastmasters Communications and Leadership Award - Virginia Governor’s Safety Award - NSA DC Member of the Year.

Jan holds an M.ED. from Lesley University, where she also directed and taught in the Graduate Teacher Outreach Program.

She is a member of the National Speakers Association, serving on the board of the DC Chapter for 2 years, and sits on the Women in Business Advisory Board at George Mason University.

Jan Fox

Fox Talks

Phone: 2020-302-1241

Have you ever tried to help a client or friend, only to discover that he or she was just a little bit crazy? Frustrating, wasn’t it?

At this program, you will have an opportunity to experience that special kind of frustration all over again.

David Gamse will be our crazy client – crazy because, by his own admission, he wants to market products and services that precious few customers want.Specifically, he would like to help older jobseekers land jobs.Yet, as you might imagine, most employers are not particularly interested in hiring them, and neither the employers nor the jobseekers seem willing to pay for this assistance.To complicate the marketing and business challenge, most employers don’t speak their minds because federal law requires them to appear to be age friendly or at least age neutral.Even David’s current and prospective customers -– men and women age 50+ -- shy from calling themselves “old.”

So how should David effectively package older workers and the services that support them?How could he attract middle-aged and older clients?How might he cover his operating costs?

In one way or another, David’s dilemma is shared by nonprofit leaders from coast to coast.Often, they advocate for unpopular programs, policies and segments of society.

David is the Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Council for the Aging® (JCA®), a local philanthropic organization that for 41 years has been helping to make the National Capital Area a great place to grow up and grow old. JCA helps older adults and family caregivers of all faiths, ethnicities and walks of life.

“JCA meets a wide range of human need,” said David. “Our programs include transportation, adult day services and caregiver support, intergenerational activities and more.Yet senior employment is our largest program.Last year alone, we invested more than $1.2 million in it.How do we make certain that future investments have maximum impact?”

Takeaways from the Session

Although the session highlights an issue in a mission-based non-profit, you will see the same principles apply to all types of organizations

Don't just try to "put lipstick on the pig" - look for substantive incentives or solutions

Leadership lessons on achieving the vision through all programs.

About Our Facilitator:

David Gamse

David Gamse is a gerontologist who has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Council for the Aging® since 1990. At JCA®, he plays a pivotal role in creating and managing innovative and cost-effective programs that help seniors thrive.

Seventy-five staff and 800 volunteers rely on his leadership, and together they serve more than 30,000 older adults and family caregivers each year through transportation services, senior employment programs, intergenerational activities, adult day services, public information programs and more. Concurrently, David serves as CEO of the National Center for Productive Aging™, JCA’s consulting arm.

Over the years, David has led workshops and symposia on issues of aging and nonprofit management for a wide range of public and private organizations including the American Management Association, the White House Conference on Aging and the U.S. Department of Labor. He has represented U.S. policy on aging at international conferences of the United Nations and Israeli Gerontological Society. He has authored many articles about productive aging and service delivery.

Prior to joining JCA, David was a senior manager at AARP, a multi-million-member association. Earlier, he was an adjunct faculty member at the University of South Florida’s Aging Studies Program, from which he graduated and from which he later received an Eminent Graduate Award.David is also a recipient of the Florida Board of Regents’ Distinguished Scholarship Award and the Seabury Leadership in Aging Award.

David is a member of the American Society of Association Executives, the Gerontological Society of America, the National Council on Aging, the Executive Directors & Headmasters Council of Jewish Agencies in the metro Washington, D.C. region, and the Montgomery Moving Forward Leadership Group.He is also an officer of WorkSource Montgomery -- the Workforce Investment Board of Montgomery County, Maryland.

David Gamse

Chief Executive Officer

JEWISH COUNCIL FOR THE AGING

Phone: 301-255-4255

March 6, 2015

Can We Lead Through Disruption and Innovation?

Consider these two scenarios - assume the role as leader of the organization – what would you do in each situation?

Your organization is a nation-wide travel agency with multiple offices in all major cities throughout the country before internet travel apps were available. The organization uses the Sabre System, which connects to many of the major airlines, to book airline tickets and you created an easy use and versatile front end program for the agents to use.

It is the 1990’s and Easy Sabre is now available to anyone with a ‘home computer’ to book airline flights. The home system is hard to use with many ordering errors by users, with no way to undo tickets except to take delivery and get a refund or credit from the airline – in around 45 days. While widely available, it is a horrible experience for many of the users.

As the leader, how would you position your organization in light of the newly available technology to the general public? Why?

You head up Kodak and in December 1975 Steven Sasson from the R&D department comes to you with a strange looking clunky device that takes pictures using ‘digital’ technology instead of film. The current business model for Kodak is provide all things photographic – cameras, film, chemicals, paper, and related items.

What would you do with this innovative device? Why?

Leading an organization during times of disruption and innovation truly challenges the leader to create a vision of what the future may hold and plan for it.

Our training for divining the future teaches us to analyze available historical data and project for the next quarter or year. Unfortunately the future has no historical data as yet and projections ranges from a Wild A?? Guess (WAG) to an Educated Guess – either way it’s a guess. What else can a leader rely on (or avoid) when making policy for the future?

In this interactive session, we’ll compare notes about experiences and outcomes from a leader’s perspective when facing disruption from market forces and the effect of innovation on our planning. Some breakthroughs are likely to occur!

Jack says technology is how we do things – not the things we do them with...those are just the tools. He develops new technology (the how) to get spectacular results using the latest tools (the things). In addition to working with clients to increase sales and improve operations, his assignments include strategic planning, acquisition assessment, fundraising strategy, executive mentoring, and general manager of a county club.

Jack’s experience as a CEO, Director, and Chairman includes the disposal of 3 organizations and leading 2 organizations that were the target for acquisition – mergers and acquisitions up close and personal. He initiated the establishment of the captioning industry association, served on the FCC Post 9/11 Emergency Communications Task Force, and is active working with students at his alma mater - The Smith School of the University of Maryland. He ran an international non-profit organization and has headed numerous boards and councils in business and community sectors.

Jack founded and leads the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland, a membership group of experienced leaders - meeting monthly since 2008; led the National Captioning Institute – a $22 M organization – as President & CEO; had senior executive roles with Union Memorial Hospital, Towers Perrin, Watson-Wyatt, and PRC in entertainment, health care, human resources industries; and has hands-on experience in operations, human resources, finance, client development, association governance, and marketing/sales. He served on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Smith School and taught business and technology classes as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland for 8 years.

He is actively involved in several organizations providing intergenerational programs – activities bringing together individuals from older and younger generations to learn from each other and to expose each generation to the magnificence and accomplishments of the other generation. Jack served on the Board of Directors of Interages for over a decade, chaired the Strategic Planning Committee, and led its merger into the JCA, another non-profit with intergenerational programs. He is mentor and Board Advisor to the HOCHA Foundation, a start-up established in June 2014, which works with elderly participants to captured their life stories through reminiscing interviews by college students, creating a legacy memory book for the participant and their family.

Gates is with Sales Lab as its COO and is active in numerous groups, such as DC Tech for start-ups and the Google technical user and developer group.

Jack earned a BS from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA (Finance) from Southeastern University in Washington, DC.

Jack Gates

Phone: 240-424-0843

Have you ever flown an airplane or imagined doing so? You may not realize it, but there are similarities between managing in the cockpit and leading in business.

In both cases it's critical to clarify where you're going, how to get there and be ready to handle turbulence along the way!

Success or failure in the cockpit can literally mean the difference between life and death.

The stakes can be just as high for leaders working within complex and demanding business environments.

As a seasoned pilot, entrepreneur and business leader, Randy has learned many lessons in the cockpit that lead to effective business leadership.

In this interactive facilitated talk, participants will engage in activities to help them explore new ways to lead their followers to simplify, clarify and strengthen their business operations.

Takeaways from the Session

The Leader's "Pre-flight Checklist" improves the probability of success

Good Leaders review "weather maps" when planning and before "take off"

Great Leaders anticipate "turbulent air" and have "alternative flight paths" layed out

What do you do on a solo flight when the back door appears to be open?

About Our Facilitator:

Randy Taussig

Randy Taussig is an entrepreneur and has served on executive teams, managing sales and operations for privately held organizations ranging from $5M - $150M. His passion is helping business leaders reach their BIG business goals.

Randy’s entrepreneurial roots go back to 1860 when his great-great grandfather started two bakeries in Washington, D.C. which eventually grew into a $150 million molasses and sugar refining business (Sucrest Corporation) that produced some well-known products like Grandmas Molasses®, a staple for many bakers and a brand still available on the market today.

Randy joined the family business after graduating from the University of Delaware, working first in finance and then in marketing, sales and operations after earning his M.B.A. He continued to work at the company for over 10 years, helping grow the business both organically and through acquisition, which eventually led to its sale to a larger food conglomerate.

Later, he ran the marketing and sales for a $40M pharmaceutical packaging business, led the marketing and operations for a national trade association and built two consulting practices.

As founder of BlueCore Leadership, he now helps entrepreneurs simplify, clarify and achieve their vision.

Randy is also a private pilot who is passionate about flying, with over 1,500 flight hours accumulated both personally and for business.

January 9, 2015Leading Through “The First Glitch”:How the Leader keeps relationships as good as they were in the beginning and how to recover them when things go sideways

The recently appointed leader take the reins at the organization and both leader and followers are enjoying the 'honeymoon' period of the new leadership. At some point, change is required and the honeymoon is over. Expectations of the leader and the followers may suffer as things change in the organization. The relationship between leader and followers will be affected.

Most relationships start off on a positive note. There are initial expectations on both sides that the relationship will be a good one. This is as true about business relationships as it is in romantic ones.

Things roll along smoothly for a while but in most cases there comes a time when some expectation is not met or some disappointment occurs. This is the point at which most people start to reassess the relationship.

It is called, The First Glitch and is a natural, yet crucial part of any relationship.

The way you deal with this first glitch determines the future of the relationship. If not dealt with at all or if handled poorly, the first glitch marks the beginning of the end of the relationship--often at great emotional and financial cost. However, if handled properly, the first glitch can present an opportunity for a much stronger, more authentic partnership going forward.

Takeaways from the Session

How to turn what might be considered difficult conversations into an opportunity to enhance partnership and teamwork

How leaders prepare themselves and others for “The First Glitch.”

How to prevent glitches from fueling resentments, hurt feelings and disengagement

How the leader communicates so that when mistakes occur, they aren’t experienced as glitches

About Our Facilitator:

Dr. Jim Goldstein

Dr. Jim Goldstein is the creator and CEO of the Powerful Partnerships® Coaching Program.

He was a college professor for four years and clinical psychologist in private practice for 14 years specializing in committed relationships. His program was created in response to what he saw in his private practice and in his consulting practice – unconscious patterns of communication and interaction that unwittingly interfered with the development and maintenance of healthy relationships.

He developed a way of communicating and acting that has a transformative effect on relationships in both families and in work situations. He has taught his method to couples and to leaders of organizations with equal success.

Dr. Goldstein shows leaders how to get their employees to want to do what is asked of them. Through humor, personal anecdotes and an unusual use of common sense, he shows people what they can do right now to turn the most troublesome relationships around and to harness their natural power as leaders so that employees are inspired to think, create and produce the very results that leaders envision.

Jim is passionate about people using the strength of their relationships to create a network of support, success and satisfaction in the workplace as well as in the home. He has a number of strategies to reduce gossip, recover and learn from “glitches,” increase personal productivity, encourage critical thinking and increase job satisfaction.

Since 1993 he has been a nationally recognized coach, trainer, author and professional speaker for small and medium sized companies as well as for some of the largest organizations in the country. For five years he was the personal coach to the Chief of the Army Reserves. He has received specialized training in creating the customer service experience, continuous improvement management, and leadership development. He incorporates his experience in training people everywhere to create Powerful Partnerships.

Ian Cook

Ian is a professional speaker, trainer, facilitator and executive coach. His expertise and passion lie in helping mid-to-executive level managers lead effectively at the “micro” level, in that interpersonal space between themselves and the individual employee. In Ian’s words, “Effective micro leadership practices yield macro results!”

Since 1988 when he founded his company, Fulcrum Associates Inc., he has worked with thousands of managers from over 250 clients from the private sector, major trade and professional associations, small business, government, and not-for-profit organizations.

Ian is a Certified Speaking Professional. CSP is the highest earned designation conferred by National Speakers Association and the Global Speakers Federation. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill and, from Cornell, a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations. In addition he has been a lecturer in Ryerson University’s Faculty of Business and has a diploma in Gestalt Theory and Methodology from the Gestalt Institute of Toronto.

Ian channels his volunteer involvement through the community leadership organization, Leadership Fairfax Inc. A 2004 alumnus of the LFI signature program, he has served on the Board of Directors, chaired their Program Committee, and currently presents a one day program in LFI’s Emerging Leaders program.

“Will Rogers” will share some common horse-sense of his own and some he picked up from these and other leaders. Will said, “Henry Ford has always had more common sense than anybody.” Complimenting Coolidge, he said, “You put horse sense into statesmanship.”

Ford said, “Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement. Success is 99% failure.” He also famously commented, "People can have the Model T in any color - so long as it's black."

The famous aviator, Amelia Earhart said, “Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done,” and also “Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats. But, they also get more notoriety when they crash.”

In addition to common sense leadership, you’ll hear Will’s comments on politics, presidents, banking, and farming. Also you’ll see a few photos of Will and friends.

Takeaways from the Session

Be willing to take risks, learn from mistakes, and move forward

Have a vision, and communicate it clearly

Give others free rein to do their best

Keep laughin’, keep learnin’, and keep pullin’ together

About Our Facilitator:

Will Rogers

(Randall Reeder)

Randall Reeder has been speaking as “Will Rogers” since 1996 when he was "discovered" by an Oklahoma professional speaker, Dale Minnick. He told Randall that "God put you together to remind us of the most admired man in the U.S. in the 20th Century."

Although Randall does not claim to live up to that high calling, he gives a lot of talks to businesses and organizations across the country, and writes a “Weekly Comments” in Will Rogers style.

In 2013 he published a book of Will Rogers’ quotes and stories about agriculture that he compiled, called “I Never Met a Farmer I Didn’t Like.” He is completing a book that includes his comments on the economy (and related quotes by Will Rogers), called “The Great Recession of 2008 to 20??.”

He grew up on a farm in West Virginia and was on the faculty at Ohio State University from 1979-2011 as an Extension Agricultural Engineer.

In many firms, men and women are promoted to management positions based at least partially, on their personality. If they are quick to speak up, quick to take action, and good at chatting up a crowd, management sees this as demonstrating leadership ability. They are the extroverts of the world. The result is that most managers are extroverts and many, and in some industries most, of the people they are managing are introverts.

The needs and motivations of these two personality types are very different and can come into conflict in workplace leading to hurt feelings, lost motivation, and a tense, unproductive office.

This discussion will cover what it means to be extroverted and introverted, and what each type seeks, and avoids.

We’ll talk about the strengths and weaknesses we’ve seen between them and talk through how those differences can be best used to achieve our goals.We’ll also share our experiences where the best of management and employee intentions lead to problems in the office and ways we’ve found to avoid them in the future.

The leadership goal is to get the most out of our team by respecting who we are.

Takeaways from the Session

Is an Introverted Leader a paradox of terms?

How best to lead a diverse group

Some approaches from experience.

About Our Facilitator:

David Oppenheimer

David Oppenheimer is a technical management consultant, author, speaker and future educator. He has worked in the software field for over 30 years building systems for commercial and government clients.

He was a principal and technical director at SRA International where he founded their Knowledge Management practice, headed the R&D division of General Dynamics’ Homeland Security Analytical Systems Group, was CTO of Omnipod, Inc and later VeriFIDES Technology Corporation and is currently the President of Nerd Herder Press.

David has made a career out of bridging the gap between the highly intelligent but socially awkward technology teams and the business world.He is the author of “The Nerd Whisperer”, a book about how to manage these introverted but brilliant personalities.

He holds a Bachelors degree in Physics from Hampshire College, a Masters in Engineering Management from the George Washington University, and a Project Management Professional Certification from the Project Management Institute.

He lives in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife, Elise (also a Nerd Herder) and is the proud father of Megan who, despite her best intentions, is also in the technology field.

There will come a time when all of us will (or have already) shifted our role relative to the workforce in some way:

sell our businesses

close them

shift to another “career” (including some form of retirement).

In this interactive session, we will consider theFinal Frontier - its effect and the opportunities presented.

In the next fifteen years, the majority of boomer-built privately owned companies will change hands:

Top 10% + of boomer companies will have aggressive suitors and profit handsomely

Next 30% - 40% of their companies will require hard work to prepare for sale and they will receive less than they expected/planned/hope

The bottom 50% ± of these companies will be of little interest and the jobs, relationships, and equity built over decades will vanish.

The exit matters, for the owner, the employees, and the customers. The opportunity comes from the need for sustainability after the “hub of the wagon wheel” leaves.

Whether an owner or a doer, the how, when, conditions and manner in which we intend to make this shift and what the roadmap might look for us – and for those who follow our leadership is the legacy we leave behind or create going forward.

Takeaways from the Session

The Final Frontier from different perspectives

Weaving leadership with legacy

Some approaches from experience.

About Our Facilitator:

Michael G. Schutta, Ph.D.

Schutta Business Transformation Consultancy, LLC

Mike is an experienced, senior Business Transformation consulting professional. His skill set includes Change Management (Ph.D.- Counseling), Project Management (PMP) and Lean Six Sigma (MBB – Master Black Belt). He is also certified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

He has engaged with both federal and commercial clients in creating solutions for organizations and businesses to achieve higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

He has worked in both the government and private sector including experience in defense, aerospace, financial and insurance services, environment, healthcare and manufacturing. He has a considerable experience in coaching and mentoring organizations at all levels from executive leadership, to middle management, to front line employees.

Currently, he is an Associate Director at Herren Associates – a Washington DC-based management consulting firm. He is also the founder and Senior Principal for Schutta Business Transformation Consultancy, LLC.

He started his career as a Marine Corps veteran (retired) and went on to consulting roles with Coopers and Lybrand, CSC, the George Group and most recently a senior principal at Accenture.

In today’s business things are complicated and leaders tend to promote that thought. Why is that? From meetings to tasks, people find themselves overwhelmed due to the complexity of the day.

What can we do to create momentum in the direction that the company needs to go…?

If we strive toward simplifying the work around us, things become clearer and the tasks become more manageable.

“It I had more time I would have written a shorter letter” ~ Mark Twain.

This is an interesting quote helping us realize that it take effort to create simplicity.

Takeaways from the Session

Understanding Complexity

Importance of Chunking

Changing one Habit to promote drastic and revolutionary changes.

The Simple Rules

About Our Facilitator:

Jeffrey P. Hunt

As an entrepreneur at heart, I started business like most kids, paper routes and cutting lawns. My first real business was a yacht detailing business that I started at the age of 20 with my friend Alan that is still in existence today….over the years I have had successes as well as some “crash and burn” failures. Through these experiences, I continue to hone my skills as a leader. I am looking forward to speaking to you on how you can Simplify your business.

I presently run a small business coaching company called STAIR Tactics where I meet with people and help them to implement improvements on their businesses.

I am also President of a company called INCENTA which is dedicated to companies and how they buy health care for their employees.

I am honored to be on the board of the FCA – Fellowship of Christian Athletes and am very active in my church.

Replace tired & trite cliches with “Power Words & Phrases”

Communicate effectively … not just efficiently

Demonstrate integrity and humanness to build trust & rapport

About Our Facilitator:

Steve Dorfman

Before founding Driven to Excel, Inc in 2006, Steve spent 11 years as a sales consultant for a luxury automaker. Yes, the car business … not exactly a business with a reputation for impeccable customer service.

So when Steveentered the business at 23 he was determined to make a positive difference by creating remarkable client experiences.

Steve went on to earn “Salesman of the Year” 7 years in a row, while maintaining a CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) rating in the top 1% nationally. He worked by appointment onlyas his repeat and referral business rocketed to unprecedented levels and ultimately translated into 70% of his sales.

All of this earned Steve a very comfortable income from his 35-hour workweek … which proves that subscribing to a culture of impeccability has its rewards.

Before the car business, Steve spent 8 rapid-growth years in the hospitality industry.

Today, Steve Dorfman also hosts the We Mean Business! TV show and has conducted more than 75 interviews with thought leaders, top executives, and bestselling authors.

“Change is the only constant” – Heraclitus (Greek philosopher known for the principle of universal flux)

We see change daily:

·the travel agents on every corner have been replaced by a garden gnome and bidding sites on the internet

·many of the desk and gate agents’ responsibilities at the airport are now done by a check-in kiosk

·business computing, which took up an entire floor of a building, now reside in a portable device – like the smartphone – with storage in the cloud

Change is unsettling – it alters the status quo, is disruptive to established routines and procedures, and challenges our comfortable and pretty predictable world. It shakes up the established environment.

BUT change is required to progress.

In this interactive session of the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland, Marc Hollander will lead us through two of the more challenging areas of change.

·Shifting from local to enterprise/collaborative culture

·Top-down culture change

Together we will share our thoughts and experience as a group and in small teams, and what we learn is applicable to any size group – from a 3-person shop to a 10,000+ person organization.

Takeaways from the Session

·Do leaders change or does the environment?

·Is change always as hard as it looks and feels?

·Is change a bad thing?

·Can an organization successfully change by force?

About Our Facilitator:

Marc S. HollanderPresidentIntegrity Federal Solutions, LLC

Marc is an entrepreneur and founder of Integrity Federal Solutions, LLC. Known for his broad technical and management experience, he drives innovative technology and business solutions for both the federal and commercial markets. As a result of his leadership experiences and understanding of business processes, he is a successful consultant and executive coach to C-Level executives in both the public and private sectors.

Marc retired as a long-time member of the Federal Government, Senior Executive Service in 2010.Mr. Hollander’s diverse civil service career spanned almost 25 years and encompassed every aspect of government policy, process, and IT services and innovation.

Mr. Hollander has managed IT portfolios of more than $2 billion annual spending and staff of up to 1,500 technical and administrative professionals.As the Vice President and Director, Financial and Enterprise Solutions Strategic Business Unit at SRA International, he was responsible for $230M annual revenue.

Marc is a decorated civil servant and US Army veteran.Marc and his wife share their time between homes in northern Virginia and North Carolina.

As leaders it’s essential for us to hear and understand what truly lies beneath people's behaviors, concerns and decisions.

What really motivates them?

What are their triggers and hot buttons?

And how do we uncover this information?

In this informative, interactive session you will learn proven methodology for listening and exploring others’ motivations and drivers to better assess needs, circumvent possible resistance and to build stronger relationships.

Takeaways from the Session

How to discover behavior triggers and hot buttons before tripping them

Margarita Rozenfeld is the CEO of Incite International, an award-winning company providing organization development, facilitation, training and coaching services to non-profit, corporate and government clients. Margarita is a frequent speaker on topics of leadership, cross-cultural communication and organizational development.

Her expertise has been featured on the Fox Morning Show, Washington Business Journal, Washington Post and several books on entrepreneurship and organizational effectiveness. Clients include Pew Charitable Trusts, World Bank, Melwood, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Department of Education.

Prior to launching her company in 2001 Margarita was a Management Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. Margarita began her career at Chemonics International, primarily managing USAID and World Bank-funded projects in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Margarita holds degrees in International Affairs and Spanish from James Madison University, a graduate certificate in Organization Development from Georgetown University and training credentials from Coaches Training Institute.

Is trust binary – either you trust or you don’t? Or instead are there categories of trust?

A classic Charlie Brown cartoon has Lucy holding the football while persuading Charlie Brown to run up and kick it – again, and Charlie convinces himself to do it –again. The result is the same as in the past – Lucy pulls away the ball at the last moment and Charlie kicks nothing but air, winding up on his back with a thud; humiliated and disappointed –again.

With a history of disappointment, why would Charlie Brown trust Lucy this time?

Trust has both an emotional and a rational side. The Charlie & Lucy example illustrates Charlie sorting through both sides.

Consider this:

How would you characteristic a baby’s trust in her parents?

What about the trust by participants in each other while doing Outward Bound?

Would you take seriously someone in a casual conversation with you who prefaces a revelation with “trust me”.

Trust is a complex concept – I have found it willvary based on the circumstances,spanning absolute, situational, contingent, or nonexistent.

How does trust work and how can it be created and nurtured?

Does Trust affect the leadership of an organization? If it’s strong? If it’s weak or absent?

There seems to be a lot to discuss about trust – together we will answer these and other questions in this interactive session of the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland.

Jack says technology is how we do things – not the things we do them with...those are just the tools. He develops new technology (the how) to get spectacular results for his clients using the latest tools (the things). In addition to working with clients to increase sales and improve operations, his assignments include strategic planning, acquisition assessment, fundraising strategy, executive mentoring, and general manager of a county club.

Jack’s experience as a CEO, Director, and Chairman includes the disposal of 3 organizations and leading 2 organizations that were the target for acquisition – mergers and acquisitions up close and personal. He initiated the establishment of an industry association and served on the FCC Post 9/11 Emergency Communications Task Force.

He blogs frequently about the evolutionary changes in business, leadership, and better communications.

Values...Ethics...Virtue...These are among the key personal traits of a successful leader. Leadership is how the leader weaves these principles into the corporate psyche to create a stable and strong environment for success in the mission.

In this thought-provoking facilitated session, Dan Shyti explores the topic of corporate values.

The central question that is placed before the group for discussion is what can leaders do to improve the ethics of their organizations?

Dan Shyti is an author, speaker, and mentor. He is the founder and president of 4 Power Leadership, a company dedicated to leadership training for corporate and government clients. Services include leadership seminars, keynote speaking, executive coaching, and public speaking training.

Dan was inspired to write “4 Power Leadership: Your Pathway to Leadership Success” because he saw too many entry level supervisors being thrust into their first leadership position without any leadership training.

4 Power Leadership: Your Pathway to Leadership Success contains practical knowledge that new leaders can put to use immediately. The information Dan provides is drawn from his experience and years of research in isolating the key characteristics that great leaders possess.

Dan is formerly a Vice President at L-3, a major technology and defense company. He has held various leadership positions in corporations and the military for 26 years of his 30-year career.

Dan is an alumnus of Pratt Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. Dan is also a distinguished military graduate of the Brooklyn Polytechnic University’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. He served proudly in the U.S. Army Signal Corps for four years and attained the rank of Captain.

Cheating is ubiquitous. The daily news in finance (Madoff), politics (McDonnell), and sports (Armstrong), testifies to this truth.

Ordinary people also cheat: three-fourths of 1800 students at nine state universities admitted to cheating and one-third of scientists confessed to engaging in questionable research practices. They also play golf, file tax returns, and submit insurance claims.

The Leadership Breakfast of Maryland program will interactively seek an understanding of why people cheat and what leaders can do to mitigate cheating across the board.

More details: This session will involve a didactic presentation along with experiential components to explore what cheating means.

Thomas Hoffman is a physician and laboratory scientist who completed a 20-year career in the United States Public Health Service at the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health as a research team leader, regulator, and science administrator.

Thomas combines his public and private sector experience in R&D and biomedical management with a thorough knowledge of classical psychoanalysis, contemporary psychology, and management theory. He is expert in individual and team dynamics, management science, and neuroscience. He is a clinician with a private practice, an academic (Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business), and a practitioner, having founded the consulting firm, PScience Associates, which focuses on biotechnology, healthcare, and high-tech enterprises.

Thomas is married (Judith Kline Hoffman, LCSW) with two children, age 26 and 22. His outside Interests include: Yoga, Golf, Cinema & Theater, Culinary Arts, and The New York Times.

Back To Basics – How Simple Leadership Principles Can Get Great Results Anywhere

Q: What leadership principles do the following turn-around efforts all have in common?

a. A cliquey, private elementary school PTA Board that went from raising $45,000 for the school in a good year to consistently raising annual revenue of more than $450,000 and funding the school with $150,000 a year in a few years.

b. A boys 13-and-under lacrosse team that went from an 0-8 record scoring only 6 goals all season to a 10-2 record the next year, scoring 54 goals and losing to the same team twice by only one goal, including the league championship game.

c. The New York City office of a national executive services firm went from $4.6 million of revenue and a net $395,000 loss in 2012 to more than $7 million of revenue and a net $400,000 profit in 2013.

A: Everything!

In all three examples above, there were minimal changes in the identity of the participants involved in each organization year over year, but the leadership approach was dramatically different than the approach inherited; the outcomes produced were radically reversed... and the participants had increased fun doing it! We will discuss the fundamental leadership principles that produced these results, and how very similar leadership change processes were successful across this wide range of different forums and participant types.

In this session we will explore how leadership can quickly drive change in any organization, and how commitment to strong and consistent leadership, with effective execution, allows you and your team to work smarter, not harder, and achieve incredible results.

Take-Aways from this Session:

The discussion should be lively and you will walk away with:

A clear understanding of key leadership principles and how they drive change

Recognition of the wide range of organizations to which these leadership principles can be effectively applied to produce great results.

James P. McAndrews III is a CPA and tax attorney with over 30 years of experience in accounting, corporate finance, law, tax, and major systems projects. Currently Jim is the Office Managing Partner for the NY Metro office of Tatum, an executive management and advisory services practice of senior operating executives providing clients with hands-on strategic, financial and technology leadership. Tatum’s compelling value is immediate integration into clients’ operations, leadership in the achievement of results, independence and objectivity. Prior to rejoining Tatum, Jim was a Tax Director and Co-Lead of the Tax Practice at Watkins Meegan LLC, a large regional public accounting firm based in Bethesda, MD. From 2005 to 2010, Jim was the Senior Vice President of Finance responsible for the Tax and Records Management departments at HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, AL. Prior to joining HealthSouth Corporation, Jim consulted in the Tax department at HealthSouth for nine months as a Partner with Tatum. Jim’s other previous engagements with Tatum included serving as the CFO for a privately held technology security company and working with a large corporate foundation to help the Board establish a new Audit Committee.

From 1985 to 2003, Jim worked at Freddie Mac in McLean, VA, serving as Vice President, Finance, Vice President, Corporate Tax, and Tax Counsel. Jim joined Freddie Mac to establish its corporate tax function, as the then $16 billion company first became subject to federal income tax. After 13 years in the Corporate Tax area at Freddie Mac, he took on other responsibilities reporting to the CFO. Jim began his career with Arthur Andersen & Co. in Washington, DC, rising to the level of Tax Manager.

Jim received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration degree in Accounting with a minor in History from Georgetown University, and a law degree and his Masters of Law in Taxation degree from The Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. He is admitted to the Bar in the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and he is a CPA in Virginia.

Jim has had substantial community involvement in a variety of leadership roles, including co-chairing the 1999 and 2000 Leukemia Balls in Washington, DC. He also has a long history of serving Catholic education at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Alexandria, VA, as well as serving the Arlington Catholic Diocese on the Diocesan School Advisory Committee. Jim values his work-life balance and has coached several of his five children in various youth sports, including soccer, basketball and lacrosse. He and Patty, his wife of 34 years, live with their youngest daughter, Theresa, in Arlington, VA.

November 1, 2013

“C” is for Collaboration: How Leaders Leverage their Circle of Influence for Greater Achievement

“Live by the three foot rule. Surround yourself with people who will enhance you spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and professionally.” Those profound words of David Jenks provide a leader with all the direction s/he needs to set in motion activities that lead to achievement.

This interactive session will explore the philosophies, principles and practices that allow leaders to receive the greatest benefit from the people with whom they associate. It will also illustrate how we enhance our own lot by playing a role in the success of others.

The foundational principle that will be explored is known as the “master mind”. It comes from teachings Dr. Napoleon Hill, the author of Think & Grow Rich, and the Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons. While many have heard of it few have understood it well enough to benefit from it. We will change that in this session.

Take-Aways:

Attendees will learn the following things from this session:

·What the master mind principle is and how to invoke it

·Multiple uses for the master mind in accomplishing objectives

·Five elements that make it work

·Making the master mind work for you in every aspect of your life

About Our Facilitator

Glenn Garnes

Connector

Village Connector Media

Glenn is an entrepreneur and business owner who has dedicated his professional life to helping other entrepreneurs and business owners equip themselves with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in business. Affectionately known as “the connector”, Glenn is a licensed attorney who retired from the practice of law to more fully pursue his entrepreneurial passions.

Glenn is a student of Napoleon Hill, the author of "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons", and teaches his philosophies and practices. Glenn is especially an advocate for collaboration. He teaches business professionals how to pool their collective energy, knowledge and talents to create better opportunities and outcomes for each other. Glenn believes that if it's worth doing it's worth doing together.

October 4, 2013

Throw Off the Restraints That Hold You Back. Use Your Fingertips.

Leaders and other employees do their very best work when they feel good. When they suffer from physical pain, emotional problems, and overwhelming pressure, their lives suck. Their work sucks too. And the same often holds true for those around them. Employees surely know this… ‘When the boss ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!’

Geez.Wouldn’t it be great if we had a way to relieve those problems in real time, on the spot, quickly, and easily?

Well, yes Virginia – and Maryland and DC – there is a Santa Claus.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT or “tapping”) has been scientifically and clinically proven to be effective in relieving – even eliminating – many negative emotional, physical, and psychological problems. In fact, EFT is also an incredibly effective tool in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which seriously debilitates the lives of many of our returning troops and their families. So your issues should be easy!

EFT is based on a combination of 5000 year old Chinese acupressure and some aspects of modern psychology. It happens to be an example of recent discoveries in neuroscience: that our brain can be re-wired because of its neuroplasticity.

In non-clinical settings, ordinary people around the world are using EFT as a self-care method for relieving and ending their own physical pains, psychological and emotional illnesses, and phobias. Imagine the possibilities that may emerge when leaders are no longer held back by whatever is interfering with their potential to lead and manage well.

Take-Aways:

This will be an all-out, full-participation meeting, so come prepared to…

Experience EFT helping you and other humans let go of their real-time issues - LIVE!

Learn how to use EFT on yourself and how to help others

Leave with detailed instructions of everything you’ll need to know

Learn why and how EFT works

Discuss using EFT in business to enhance individual performance

Reduce the impact of your stress-related emotional/physical issues on the spot

About Our Facilitators

Bev Nerenberg

Bev was formerly an Executive VP of Operations for an Inc. 500 company and a Director of Operations for a chain of Montessori schools. She learned about EFT in 2008, and it impactedher health and happiness so positively and dramatically, that she shifted the direction of her life.Bev became passionate about teaching people how to substantially reduce and/or eliminate negative emotions, limiting beliefs, and physical aches and pains so they could live stress-free, more productive, happier and healthier lives.She went on to become a Certified EFT Practitioner, coach and trainer, founded Wellness At Your Fingertips®, teaches EFT to groups, and offers one-on-one sessions in person, by phone and Skype.

Lowell Nerenberg

Lowell was the founder and CEO of Computer Graphics Distributing Company, an Inc. 500 (#144) firm. He went on to roll it up with five other companies, which then went public. He also co-founded a similar New England distribution firm which the public company acquired. Since 2005 Lowell has been an executive leadership and management coach, first as a Chair with Vistage, leading and coaching CEO and key executive peer groups. Lowell now works with individual companies’ CEOs and senior executives through his firm, Coach Lowell. He uses EFT as an effective tool to facilitate sustainable change for his clients.

Bev Nerenberg

Wellness At Your Fingertips®

(301) 602-3949

Lowell Nerenberg

Coach Lowell

(301) 467-6224

September 13, 2013

Leadership in the First Person - Mystery Speaker on Leadership Coming to the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland

For the September 13th meeting, a Mystery Speaker will address our group about leadership from a first person perspective.

A little about the Mystery Speaker:

a recognized world class leader

professionally built two massive entities successfully

people listen when the Mystery Speaker talks and is often quoted

responsible for the initial success of a world renowned startup

developed an existing organization from rag-tag operations to a clear winner

is an enterprising entrepreneur responsible for game changing innovation in agriculture, fisheries, and distillery sectors

these are just some of the highlights of a stellar career

a final point - he is a household name.

This session of the Leadership Breakfast is not one to miss – you may be surprised (and delighted) when the speaker is introduced, but will leave the meeting with unique insights about leadership of epic proportions.

Our monthly presenters at LBMD are superior, but this one is revolutionary.

Our Mystery Speaker

World Class Leader

Please register soon – this session will fill up quickly.

August 2, 2013

We dream of a positive workplace with peak productivity and
satisfaction among employees.

Some have found the formula for making this dream a reality, while
others struggle.

Join us for this interactive session that gives attendees an opportunity to
dissect three leadership tactics Gwen Kinsey used to leverage employee
engagement to turn a dysfunctional, poor performing television station
into an award winning organization that sold for 21 times cash flow.

Take-Aways:

Her leadership secrets for creating inspired followers?

·Pull some weeds

·Get out of the way

·Take a field trip

About Our Facilitator

Gwen is a consultant, facilitator and executive coach whose background includes progressive sales and top leadership roles in the television industry. She held management positions with publicly traded companies in six geographic markets.

Her former broadcast employer called on her to serve as President and General Manager for 4 of the 10 stations they owned. She developed news departments that accomplished award winning product improvements, sales teams who outpaced market competitors in new business growth and led digital initiatives for Young Broadcasting.

Contact Information

Gwen Kinsey

GK Network, LLC

Phone: (605) 212 – 8462

July 12, 2013

Leaders Are Storytellers: How to Use the Right Stories at the Right Time to Accelerate Your Success

Leaders lead by action and inspire with words.

The most admired leaders are great storytellers.

Admired leaders balance personal and professional stories to
inspire and build great organizations.

Learn key steps into developing high impact stories that will
resonate both inside and outside your organization.

Stay engaged with practical ideas and thought-provoking
exercises you can implement immediately.

Take-Aways:

Think "deliberately" about the stories you tell

Realize that storytelling in business is both and art and a science

Start and maintain your own story library

About Our Facilitator

Ira Koretsky

“Think deliberately.” The mantra of a person who has made improving communications his life’s work.

It all began some 30 years ago, at a high school science fair. Ira had presented his computer program on the heart and the circulatory system. One by one, the prizes were announced...third...second...first place. After nearly 100 hours of programming evenings and weekends, he slumped his shoulders and thought to himself, “I lost.”

Then...Ira heard the chairwoman announce, “We are awarding the grand prize to a young man who could sell me my own pair of shoes!” And his name was called.

For more than 26 years nationally and internationally, Ira has been building his communication skills into a well-honed set of precision instruments. Within minutes, he will fundamentally change the way you communicate.

His most pivotal experience was serving as a public affairs officer in the United States Army Medical Service Corps. Trained in giving and preparing presentations for military and civilian executives, he gained invaluable insights into messaging, communications, and storytelling.

Living on both coasts, Ira has held various leadership roles in marketing and product management. After earning his MBA from the University of Maryland in 2000, Ira entered into the world of leading edge technology. It was while working in San Francisco and Silicon Valley he began to adapt his skills for use with the new, technology-driven tools today’s professionals have come to rely on.

And like all good communicators, Ira loves the stage. He performed improvisational humor professionally with ComedySportz in a career spanning 12 years and more than 1,000 shows. While performing, Ira had this epiphany: “improv mirrors life.” Life experiences stem from random and planned connections with people, and it is these experiences that help us to bond quickly with audiences.

Ira is an active blogger and writer, was a guest columnist for theWashington Business Journal, and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland.

He helped the a US government contracting firm win a $94 million multi-year project; Altum develop a proposal that had a 100% success rate in going to the final decision round; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) secure Affordable Care Act dollars and $6.2M for the National Youth Fitness Survey.

Contact Information

Ira Koretsky

The Chief Storyteller, LLC.

Phone: (301) 718 – 8368

June 7, 2013

Leading Under Sub-Optimal Conditions

You NEVER have the option of not succeeding. Failures as steps to success are expensive and time consuming. Thinking, studying, and experimenting are also expensive and time consuming, but the Return On Investment is vastly greater than a series of ill-considered, step-wise failures.

Or, as the Black Ops Guys say... “If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.”

In the book Optimizing Luck, Thomas Meylan (your presenter) and Terry Teays show what it takes to be an intelligent leader who builds smart andtough organizations on purpose.They demonstrate that an organization is a system that can be designed and structured to succeed in bad times just as well as good times.When times are good, the well-engineered organization behaves in Luck Optimizing, or LO, modes.When times are bad, the same organization behaves in Fault Tolerant, or FT, modes.

In the brief time allotted, Dr. Meylan will outline the issues you must settle and the skills you must acquire to build your team into a Luck Optimizing and Fault Tolerant machine that wins big under all conditions.

As time permits, the interactive aspects of the presentation will focus on Leadership abilities required to use Fault Tolerance to convert an adverse situation into a business opportunity.

Take-Aways:

•What Leadership really is (and how different it is from what you ordinarily witness)

•What the Five Key Executive Practices for guiding the organization are

•What the Three Big Advantages a fully Fault Tolerant Organization will deliver are

About Our Facilitator

Tom Meylan

Thomas Meylan has directed regional and national territories for major information technology firms as well as one of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's most important international laboratories.

He has specialized in the development of systems for new large-scale business starts, such as Bell Atlantic's (Verizon) internet service in the 1990s, and in the recovery of major project disasters, including labor relations meltdowns.

His results are well known for speed of delivery, low cost, and over-all efficiency.

Tom obtained his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Georgia State University in 1990.

Contact Information

Tom Meylan

Phone: 301-864-8613

May 10, 2013

Can Leadership Be Taught?

Many of us can recall someone in a mandatory class setting with jaw set and mind closed – determined not to learn to defy 'them' (the source of the mandate) – so we have observed that students can actively resist learning by being impervious to new input and ideas. Same outcome can happen passively as well when the lessons don't 'stick'.

Can leadership be taught? Most people agree we can learn leadership, but can we actually teach leadership? If so, what does it take?

Our May meeting facilitator is Ray Strackbein who has been teaching management and (he claims) leadership for over 25 years.

By the end of this interactive session, you will have a better idea of what actually works when you try to teach leadership.

Ray has delivered over 20 years of paid presentations worldwide. He has spoken in Sweden, England, Norway, Korea, Japan, The Netherlands, Canada, Barbados, and in all but a few of the States.

Contact Information

Ray Strackbein

703-262-0361

April 5, 2013

CREATIVITY WHERE YOU LEAST EXPECT IT

What's the path from idea to invention?

Everyone talks about creativity as if it were a contemporary commodity, but it's one of the least tangible of all precious resources.

The act of transforming blueprints and schematics into tangible, useful results requires acute perception, the willingness to abandon safe boundaries, and steely resolve. But creativity is like a muscle: abilities expand with use.

Once regarded as the principal domain of artists, creativity has become the buzz word of the wired world, the engine of modern business models, and the new paradigm for social mores evolving in real time.

In this presentation, Michael Starobin will present ideas about how both artists and non-artists can generate creative solutions to wide ranging enterprises.

Drawing on art history, space-based scientific observations of the Earth, and his own experiences inventing a new type of cinema for spherical surfaces, his talk will present concrete tools for tackling all sorts of creative challenges.

Take-Aways:

Creativity as a resource

Generating creative solutions

Tools for creative challenges

About Our Facilitator

Michael Starobin is the President and Creative Director for 1AU Global Media, LLC, a media production and communications consulting company. His award-winning work has played at The Smithsonian Institution, The United Nations, Congressional and other federal presentations, television outlets, and numerous corporate venues.

In 2006, Starobin led the development of technology and procedures for delivering the world’s first movie created specifically for spherical screens. The resulting film he produced and directed, called FOOTPRINTS, continues to play daily in four languages on spherical screens around the world. Time Magazine named FOOTPRINTS one of the best inventions of the year. Starobin and his team used these techniques to produce the principal film shown by the United States delegation at the international climate summit in Copenhagen.

Michael's background includes a position as Senior Producer for Television and Electronic Media at The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Earlier in his career Starobin worked in the Washington news corps, overseeing news and video distribution operations for Conus Communications, a national media company. Before assuming a leadership position at Conus he started the company’s science and technology desk in Minneapolis, reporting on a wide range of subjects. Prior to Conus he worked in Public Radio as a producer.

Michael has an extensive background in the performing arts prior to his life in media, working on both sides of the camera in independent films, as a writer, and on stage. He graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota with a degree in Anthropology and honors work in biomedical ethics.

Contact Information

Michael Starobin

March 1, 2013

YOU, INC. - Tools and Strategies for Effective Personal Leadership

Realize your untapped potential and exercise your personal talents by leading yourself in all areas of life.

In this session we talk about:

Realizing Untapped Potential- seeing yourself as a service product, and taking stock of your personal assets: know-how, energy, time management, imagination, decision making, creativity, and leadership power. What would happen if you used just a little more of your potential?

Balance- assessing your Wheel of Life, defining success and making progress in all seven areas: physical, mental, career, family, financial, social and spiritual/ethical. Who motivates the motivator? Why is goal setting the strongest force for human motivation?

Visioning & Strategic Goal Setting- how thinking "from" an outcome rather than "of" the outcome and why structural tension can help you be a more powerfully creative force in your own life. Learn about a fun, creative and unusual goal setting tool, The Personal Vision Letter. What do you see from your future that is worth changing your present?

“If you’re not making the progress you would like to make and are capable of making, it’s simply because your goals are not clearly defined.”

About Our Facilitator

Edwards A. Holliday is president and founder of Atlantic Leadership Group, established in 1989 as a Franchise Partner of Leadership Management Inc. (LMI) and serving private and publicly held organizations on the East Coast.

Atlantic Leadership Group is a performance improvement company focused on developing business strategy, leadership skills and productivity improvement. Edwards and his associates have a passion for producing results for CEO's and their management teams, as well as top producing advisors in the financial services industry.

His primary role is being the Advisor to Advisors of small, high producing teams committed to continuously growing, improving and transitioning their businesses. He drives results in increased client assets and revenue, improved clientele quality and developing raving fans. A longtime specialist in executive coaching, Edwards has experience in leadership development, strategic planning, productivity improvement, sales prospecting effectiveness and personal goal setting. For the past 23 years he has personally coached over 2000 individuals.

Edwards researches validated best practices and transforms proven ideas into innovative solutions for clients that include large firms such as Morgan Stanley, UBS Financial Services, RBC Wealth Management, Wells Fargo Advisors, and Oppenheimer & Co. His clients also include small to middle market privately held firms such as Sheehan & Co. CPA, Harkins Builders, Inc., TCA TrustCorp America, Bishop & Associates and Appelman & Schauben. He enjoys writing and has published more than 100 profile articles on business leaders and what makes them effective.

Edwards lives in Clarksville, Maryland with his wife of 17 years, Melba, and their two daughters, Sarah (15), a champion field hockey goalie and Elizabeth (11), a budding equestrian. He enjoys making his wife happy by doing endless home improvement projects, supporting his kids’ athletic and school events, motorcycling with the whole family and playing an occasional poker game.

Contact Information

Edwards A. Holliday

Advisor to Advisors

Atlantic Leadership Group

(202) 656-2388

February 1, 2013

Why Do People Do Stupid Things?

Do you ever scratch your head wondering why someone did something obviously incredibly stupid – even though the individual is not a stupid person?

Or how can several very bright business people - the top management of a software firm - collectively decide to keep two sets of books – one with actual figures and the other with how they felt the figures should be.

The Leadership Breakfast of Maryland program will interactively seek an understanding of why, and what leaders can do to mitigate stupid actions in the organization.

More details: This session will involve a didactic presentation along with experiential components to explore what is meant by “stupid,” characterizing types of “stupid” activities, delineating psychological dynamics and neural pathways underlying these types of behaviors, and considering potential ways to prevent or, at least, minimize “stupid” and self-destructive actions in the personal realm, at work, and in our culture.

Takeaways:

An understanding of the theories of why people do stupid things, including self-destructive actions.

An appreciation of the complexity of the psychology and neuroscience underlying stupid behaviors and how little we really know.

How to use what is known in order to avoid doing stupid things or, at least, minimize them.

As a leader, how to help others act less stupidly.

About Our Facilitator

Thomas Hoffman is a physician and laboratory scientist who completed a 20-year career in the United States Public Health Service at the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health as a research team leader, regulator, and science administrator.

Thomas combines his public and private sector experience in R&D and biomedical management with a thorough knowledge of classical psychoanalysis, contemporary psychology, and management theory. He is expert in individual and team dynamics, management science, and neuroscience. He is a clinician with a private practice, an academic (Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business), and a practitioner, having founded the consulting firm, PScience Associates, which focuses on biotechnology, healthcare, and high-tech enterprises.

Thomas is married (Judith Kline Hoffman, LCSW) with two children, age 25 and 21. His outside Interests include: Yoga, Golf, Cinema & Theater, Culinary Arts, and The New York Times.

Contact Information

Thomas Hoffman, M.D.

9419 Locust Hill Rd.

Bethesda, MD 20814

(301) 493 8630

January 4, 2013

How You Can Prepare For Our Changing World:

A Landmark Address on the 5th Anniversary of the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland

Are you a 1985 Leader?

Or are you a 1995 Leader?

Or are you a Leader for 2013 and beyond?

It is V3 that distinguishes one from the next – the Variety, Velocity, and Volume of your learning – varied experiences, how quickly you learn something new, and amount of material reviewed.

The relationship of learning in leadership has changed over the last 25 years – in the earlier days as leaders grew they took a course, absorbed books by Drucker and/or Bennis, and maybe some training and consultation on leadership concepts. There were plenty of management writings around – not so much about leadership... was it easier then to be a leader – no, just different.

Today there is a huge and growing collection of material in print, audio, video, and on internet blogs – so much that it is impossible to read it all and even harder to make sense of the various viewpoints. What does this mean for current and emerging leaders? It means we must learn in a different fashion than in the past and must strike a balance between the extensive material and filtering to a manageable volume. Learning what is 'true.'

What's your best method of learning leadership?

What's the role of our Leadership Breakfast in your process?

How do we provide the leadership to support a learning and developing environment while being competitive on a global scale in a ‘do more with less resources’ society?

This will be a highly interactive session seeking to tap the collective wisdom in the room for key input to these and related questions.

About Our Facilitator

Jack Gates

Technology is how we do things – not the things we do them with...they are just the tools – according to Jack. He develops new technology (the how) to get spectacular results using the latest tools (the things) for projects and clients. He blogs a couple of times per week about the evolutionary changes in business and other topics worth sharing, such as: A Modern Legacy, Jobs of the Future, and The New Normal, .

Jack founded the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland, meeting monthly since February 2008; led the National Captioning Institute - a $22M organization, as President & CEO; had senior executive roles in organizations in entertainment, health care, and behavioral science consulting; and is active in numerous boards for mission-based entities and educational organizations, such as the Smith School of the University of Maryland, Interages, and is a science fair judge with the Junior Academy of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Jack has hands-on experience in operations, human resources, finance, client development, mergers, and marketing/sales.

Gates is COO of Sales Lab Incorporated, and is active in DC Tech for start-ups, the Google technical user and developer group, and the Capital Technology Management Hub - which is associated with the Technology Management Master’s Program at George Mason University.

He earned a BS from the Smith School of BUsiness at the University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA (Finance) from Southeastern University in Washington, DC.

Q: What do Nordstrom, Starbucks, Google and Apple all have in common?

Google simplified search and today its sites account for more than 6% of all of the world’s Internet traffic. Apple’s products, retail establishments and customer experience all draw rave reviews and the company continues to increase market share. In fact, Apple recently posted record revenue of $46.33 billion for Q1. Starbucks is so committed to its patrons that in late 2010, it enacted a new policy prohibiting baristas from creating more than two drinks at a time (only starting a second one while finishing the first). And Nordstrom has become the benchmark by which other companies measure themselves. It isn’t unusual to hear a business owner say, “We aspire to be the Nordstrom of the __________ business.”

Do you know what distinguishes your business from all your competitors?

The secret to capturing market share lies in how impeccable your customer experience is ... consistently.

In this session we will explore what impeccability means, how to create a culture of impeccability in your business, and how impeccability allows you to work smarter, not harder.

Take-Aways from this Session

The discussion will be lively and the insights many - you will walk away with:

A clear understanding of how impeccability is a cornerstone of business growth in 2013 and beyond

Fresh action items to create impeccable experiences tailored for you and your specific business

Your personal i-SAT (Impeccable Service Aptitude Test) score.

In his own words...

About Our Facilitator

Steve Dorfman

Chief Impeccability Officer

Since 2006, clients have come to Steve for customer service strategy, and to motivate, educate, engage, and develop front-line staff with interactive trainings and continuous development programs that result in:

"Employee-owned" remarkable experiences for customers and clients

Consistent referral business

Repeat customer loyalty

… and all of this all translates into a strengthened culture and increased profits.

Before founding Driven to Excel, Inc., Steve spent 11 years as a sales consultant for a luxury automaker. Yes, the car business ... not exactly a business with a reputation for impeccable customer service. So when Steveentered the business at 23 he was determined to make a positive difference by creating remarkable experiences for his clients – His unwavering commitment to impeccable service earned Steve "Salesman of the Year" 7 years in a row, all-the-while maintaining a CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) rating in the top 1% nationally. He worked by appointment only as his repeat and referral business grew to account for 70% of his sales. This was unprecedented and translated into a comfy six-figure income from his 35-hour workweek ... which proves that by subscribing to a culture of impeccability, you’re working smarter, not harder.

Before the car business, Steve spent 8 rapid-growth years in the hospitality industry, where his commitment to remarkable service was founded. Today, Steve Dorfman also hosts the We Mean Business! TV show (www.WeMeanBiz.tv) and has conducted more than 60 interviews with leading experts, top exectutives and bestselling authors. He is also cofounder of the YPLG (Young Professionals Leadership Group). In 2011 Steve married Maggie; the love of his life. They were married at Lake Anna, VA – their favorite weekend spot for boating, wakeboarding and fun in the sun, especially when shared with close friends and family. Steve and Maggie reside in Gaithersburg, MD and look forward to starting a family soon.

Contact Information

Steve Dorfman

Chief Impeccability Officer

202.556.3235

November 2, 2012

Are You A Strong Enough Leader to Hire and Keep Better Than You!

In the New York Times bestseller book, Fierce Leadership, by Susan Scott there is a quote…

“You will not single handedly cause or prevent success. Surround yourself with people who model accountability, ferocious integrity, personal authenticity, the capacity to connect with others at a deep level, sheer courage, and a commitment to champion the common good over narrow self-interest.”

As a leader, are you self-confident enough, brave enough, fierce enough to lead a team smarter, more talented, better equipped than you?

At the November 2nd Leadership Breakfast of Maryland come ready to debate and to learn what the leaders of the most successful companies know…

How to hire and retain the strongest talent that is far brighter, far more innovative, far more effective than the top leader.

We will take a look at business practices that will help you recognize your role as a leader in creating and/or sustaining a 'best in class' talent oriented organization!

Take-Aways from this Session

In addition to what will be a lively discussion of the topic, you will learn:

How to attract and retain best staffing

The effect on financial results from best staffing

The 'halo effect' on other staff from best staffing

About Our Facilitator

Catherine Meloy

President/CEO

Catherine Meloy is the President and CEO of Goodwill of Greater Washington. She was selected in 2003 by the Goodwill Board of Trustees as a proven business leader who could dramatically extend the reach and vitality of the organization and enable it to serve an even broader segment of the disabled and disadvantaged population.

Prior to joining Goodwill of Greater Washington, Catherine had a successful 20 year career in the radio industry. She was the Senior Vice President of Sales for Clear Channel Communications, Inc.: was General Manager of WASH-FM, WBIG, BIG 100 and WGMS 103.5.

Catherine's involvement in the greater Washington community includes: member of the Board of the Directors, Greater Washington Board of Trade, member of the Federal City Council, and member of the DC Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Catherine also serves on the DC Workforce Investment Council, The Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board, The Community Foundation Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of MedStar Health.

Catherine is a recipient of the Greater Washington Board of Trade's “Leader of the Years Award”; was honored by Washingtonian Magazine as “Washingtonian of the Year”; was inducted into the American Marketing Association - DC Chapter Hall of Fame and was highlighted as the Most Admired CEO by Smart CEO Magazine for her successful organizational turnaround of Goodwill of Greater Washington.

Catherine's favorite recreational activity is sailing with her family. She and her husband, David, who is President of Merit Hotels, have three grown children.

October 5, 2012

How to identify and instill the attributes at the heart of an incredibly effective and admired organization.

What if you were able to design or redesign your organization:

to be a great or greater place to work

to attract solid customers and to keep them as long term clients

to build market share

to sell your products and services at a comfortable profit, and

to hire and retain engaged, inspired “A” players

would you want that?

If your answer is “no,” then stop reading and go away.

But if your answer is “yes,” stick around, because we all will discover that the critical elements are within your grasp to design and implement such a scenario.

Based on my own personal experience as a CEO, and what I’ve witnessed and learned over the years, there are fundamental qualities and attitudes that most great organizations exemplify. Qualities which are reflected in the culture and the behavior of the employees from the bottom up and from the top down.

You can count those critical characteristics on one, okay, maybe two hands. If you have them, you have the potential for greatness.

Once these qualities are identified, communicated, accepted, aligned on, and integrated into the culture, I suggest your organization will thrive, and all stakeholders will be attracted to it like a powerful magnet. They will admire and respect it.

In our discussion these qualities will be revealed and examined.

Take-Aways from this Session

You will come away with practical, usable insight to apply immediately. You will:

Understand the power they have to empower your organization’s effectiveness and success.

See how they will enhance your employees’ level of engagement, creativity, initiative, sense of ownership, team cohesiveness, and commitment to the organization’s goals.

Lowell ("Coach Lowell") Nerenberg is an executive leadership coach. He is committed to helping leaders achieve profound and enduring breakthroughs in leadership effectiveness and team performance.

After quitting or getting himself fired several times, Lowell founded and led Computer Graphics Distributing Company (CGD) for eleven years. And believe it or not, CGD became #144 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies. He also co-founded a similar firm, New England Computer Graphics (NECG). Lowell sold CGD in a merger and roll-up with five other regional distributors to form a national distribution company. Later the same year the merged group issued an IPO on NASDAQ and soon thereafter acquired NECG.

In many ways, CGD was unique in the distribution world. It was inspired by a powerful shared purpose and guided by core values and principles. A brief article about the company appeared in Baltimore and Washington editions of SmartCEO magazine in 2011. A reprint will be available at the meeting on October 5, 2012. Full disclosure: Lowell wrote the article himself.

Just prior to forming his own executive coaching firm in 2008, Lowell was a Vistage Chair for three years, leading and coaching peer groups of CEOs and key executives.

In addition to his experience as a CEO, investor, and entrepreneur, Lowell has extensive training and experience in interpersonal communication, neuroscience, stress management, human potential, coaching strategies and techniques, improvisational theater, and a few new age and weird approaches to enhancing the performance and alignment of others.

Lowell is a graduate of Temple University. He and his wife, Bev, live in the DC area, have been married for a really long time, and have two adult sons.

September 7, 2012

Critical Communications

During Difficult Times

It is a tough market out there!

Dynamic economic conditions are putting constant pressure on business owners and managers to remain focused, profitable and ahead of their competition.

Organizations everywhere are finding it necessary to respond by cutting cost and/or staff, limiting investments and services - all the while, doing more with less while keeping innovation at a premium.

It can be very hard to keep up with new opportunities and technologies and assure that your clients are not left behind.

In times like these, it's critical to keep employees engaged and customers satisfied and content. And when necessary staff reductions or product changes are required, the impact can ripple through the organization from leadership to consumer.

You must anticipate the effect of changing environments on people, your customers, and your markets. To understand how to manage and minimize the impact of dramatic changes, it is important to have a strong communication plan in place.

Thorough understanding how individuals react to change and how to facilitate transitions smoothly requires advanced planning and prior preparation.

A proactive communication plan can keep your business from stalling when change is required. We’ll look at four key areas to help you manage communications during a period of change.

They are:

1) How the cycles of change and the key role players in the change can help or hamper the communication process.

2) Using today’s technology to facilitate communication.

3) Creating a targeted strategy for communicating the solutions for the challenges the organization is facing both internal and externally.

Take-Aways from this Session

You will come away with practical, usable information to apply immediately, including:

Open, timely communication with your employees and customers will help build trust and make them willing to represent your organization and support change.

The key - start today and communicate, communicate and communicate!

There is more than one way to deliver a message. Always tailor your message to meet the audience’s needs and the situation at hand.

About Our Facilitator

Cathy Nestoriak

Owner10 til 2The Part-time Placement Service

Cathy Nestoriak is the owner of 10 til 2 – The Part-time Placement Service – serving the Montgomery County/DC area. Before striking out on her own, Cathy worked in the corporate arena addressing employee development and effectiveness.

Her background includes corporate training and development, as well as workforce development.

Cathy has a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Development. She is also MBTI Certified.

She is passionate about communication and promoting a better work/life balance for the labor force.

August 3, 2012

Mentoring- A Great Investment

What if I said by telling your stories, you can contribute to the professional development of individuals in your organization, ignite the spark of leadership in your listeners, further develop your own skills as a leader, see your experiences at a deeper level, learn something new, and help your organization to function at a higher level. Would it be worth spending some time on a routine basis to share your knowledge and experience to get this kind of return? Mentoring encompasses all this and more.

Most leaders are involved in the process of mentoring in some fashion – at work; in the community; as a parent; informally; however, while mentoring has been practiced for centuries, approaches have evolved in recent times to better stimulate and reward both parties in the professional growth process. Part of this evolution is a recognition of the fine line between mentor and protege and vice versa.

Time demands may have relegated mentoring to a task on the ‘to-do’ list for some in the corporate and government arenas; and many leaders have not updated their thoughts about the time investment to see the increased ‘ROI’ of their efforts offered by current methods. At the same time, they are pondering how to get senior-experience results from new, less experienced staff under a greater workload.

In this robust and interactive session, Glenn Gargan will offer thoughts and nuggets he learned from mentoring roles spanning more than two decades and comments about the expanded communities and types of mentoring that are now more commonplace in life (not just business). He will also tap participants for additional experiences from their mentoring roles. It will quickly become clear that everybody wins in the art of mentoring as it is practiced today.

Give some thought to unique results you know of which come from a mentoring relationship and share these experiences during the meeting – miracles, enlightenment, launching successful careers, and creating extraordinary organizations will certainly be illustrated in your stories.

Take-Aways from this Session

You will come away with practical, usable information to apply immediately, including:

Best practices of mentoring

What’s the mentored individual (proteges) get out of the process

Benefits for the mentors and the organizations.

About Our Facilitator

Glenn GarganPresident & CEOThe Viaggio Corporation

A native Washingtonian, Glenn Gargan received his Undergraduate degrees in Finance and Accounting (with a third major in Economics) from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. After graduation, Glenn joined the Entrepreneurial Services and High Technology Group of Ernst & Young, where he was a member of the IPO teams of America Online and Orbital Sciences, as well as a private placement for Starbucks, and was heavily involved in the firm’s venture capital activities. Glenn followed a client from public accounting into the construction industry, where he was CFO for more than a decade.

After receiving his MBA from the Smith School, Glenn utilized his experiences to start firms specializing in federal contracting and Architectural/Engineering/Construction (A/E/C) cost & project consultation to both government and commercial clients. As the Founder and President/CEO of The Viaggio Corporation, Glenn is extremely involved in corporate inception and growth mentorship to minority federal government contractors as a founding partner in several corporations, as well as many Corporate, Mentor, and Advisory Board relationships.

Glenn is also involved with the Project Management Institute as a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), the Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA) as a Certified Construction Industry Financial Professional (CCIFP), and the National Speakers Association (NSA). He was a Senior Mentor and Chairman of the Robert H. Smith School of Business Graduate Mentor Program (which had more than 400 Mentors and Protégés) for six years; and has judged numerous Smith MBA Case and Venture Capital Business Plan Competitions. Mr. Gargan is a past Smith Advisory Board and Alumni Chapter Board member, and served on the Board of Interages, which provided inter-generational mentoring. He also currently serves as an Advisory Board member for the Heyman Interages Center of the Jewish Council for the Aging.

July 13, 2012

The 3 Unanswered Questions Each Team Member Wants To Know

Business has changed.

The 'factory' concept which brought the skillful artisans to the same location, instead of them being scattered around the region in their shops, has run its course. Today all of our project team is unlikely to be in one building, and may have the participants in different locations, in different countries, from different cultures, and perhaps speaking different languages.

Traditional chain-of-command and supervisor structures do not work well in this environment. In fact, you may not have any formal authority to manage the team of peer collaborators, even though your role is to lead the project to a successful result.

This session is about moving beyond words and action plans to really connect with others – to constructively unleash their passion and potential. Each person on your team wants to know the answer to three questions. With the 'right' answers they buy into your ideas and role – and want to contribute to a successful project.

Take-Aways from this Session

In this interactive session, Tom Cooper will identify the 3 Unasked Questions and you will come away with actionable tools to strengthen:

Communications

Relationships

Results

About Our Facilitator

Tom Cooper, Principal of the Brighthill Group, believes that "because people matter, we must lead them well." His passion for leadership comes from a career in technology where he saw just how important leadership could be to project success or failure. He has worked in companies as small as 5, and has led teams in companies as large as 160,000 employees. He has been a management consultant and IT leader. He has studied and lived out leadership, team building and communications. Along the way he spent a decade in Fortune 500 information technology; built and led teams of software engineers; and now helps leaders raise their game when it comes to personal and team performance.

June 1, 2012

A Leader’s Path: Navigating Change and Crisis to Transformation and Growth

There comes a point in every leader’s lifetime, where he or she has to face their greatest challenge. That challenge is to answer one simple question: “As a leader what is my true destiny and purpose?” For George Spears, amidst the economic crisis of 2010 and with the future of his company at stake, he was faced with having to answer this question...

During this session, George takes participants on a journey, whereby sharing his personal experience coupled with a simple model for change, he walks you through the 4 phases everyone must go through to effect change and transformation. In the session you will:

Discover the one key emotion that prevents most people from achieving transformation

Learn to recognize the clues and signs for when success is most imminent

Receive key strategies for getting through “the last exam” to permanent change

Gain an awareness and appreciation for the “aftermath,” the mass effect your transformation has on those around you

Take-Aways from this Session

George will share his first-hand experience in transforming his company in response to plummeting sales and other hardships caused by the recession. From the painful lessons learned, his company is stronger then ever and he is launching two new ventures on June 1st.

In addition to the document he developed for this LBMD session, you will take away practical new business techniques he discovered when fighting to overcome the uncertainly and effect of the past several years.

About the Facilitator

George Spears is a seasoned business owner, executive and serial entrepreneur with over 25+ years experience as a consummate professional. He is an accomplished Owner Operator with a record of developing four high performance organizations.

In the past two decades, George has focused on effectively delivering positive organizational transformation both organically and through reorganizations, joint ventures, and mergers. A proactive leader, George has enjoyed tremendous success by relentlessly driving his organizations with towards consistent revenue growth through strategically developed product diversification, channel marketing and sales management.

In May of 2010, George was featured in “Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area, Volume I,” a book focusing on business leadership by Gordon J. Bernhardt.

George is an active member of The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG). He holds an M.B.A. from Marymount University and a B.A. from Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

Protecting Your Most Valuable Asset: Your Reputation

With the explosion of online speech, from news reports, to consumer websites, message boards, social media and the like, the reputations of businesses and individuals have become increasingly vulnerable to attack.

Once attacked, the damage can be very difficult to contain and repair, especially when it is no more than a Google search away.

As part of the presentation, David will focus on understanding the boundaries of what is acceptable expression, protected by the First Amendment, and what is actionable defamation.

He will also explore what steps one can take when attacked, along with the perils of litigation today. David will also look at how to avoid stepping over the line in one's own speech.

Take-Aways from this Session

Where's the line between protected speech and defamatory statements

What to do if your reputation is under attack

Some techniques to avoid being maliciously defamed.

About Our Facilitator

David S. Wachen is a legal “trouble-breaker” and peacekeeper, focused on helping businesses, associations and individuals manage risk and achieve practical and successful resolution of problems of all types—ideally without litigation. However, should litigation ensue, Mr. Wachen brings a formidable arsenal of tools from many years of zealously and successfully representing clients in state and federal courts in Maryland, the District of Columbia and numerous other jurisdictions around the country. He has also represented clients at numerous arbitrations and mediations.

Prior to joining Shulman Rogers, Mr. Wachen was in-house counsel at MCI, Inc., where he managed a large docket of diverse and complex matters worldwide. His responsibilities included: representing the company in threatened or pending litigation; managing outside counsel in developing and implementing strategy and tactics for pending litigation; negotiating successful resolution of business disputes—often before litigation had been initiated; counseling in-house clients on managing risk and resolving disputes, as well as on issues relating to pending contractual negotiations and disputes with customers, vendors, joint venturers, and the government. Mr. Wachen’s MCI tenure provided him with a keen, first-hand understanding of client needs and the challenges they face, including demands and obligations within their organization—a relatively uncommon perspective for an attorney in private practice.

Before joining MCI, Mr. Wachen was in private practice for more than a decade - most recently as a partner at the national law firm of Baker & Hostetler, LLP. A significant portion of his practice involved representing broadcasters, publishers and other members of the media around the country in litigation as well as a variety of other matters. Among other things, he has extensive experience counseling clients on content and news gathering issues, assisting them in accessing public records and proceedings, and defending them against nonparty subpoenas.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Wachen practiced with the Washington office of Howrey & Simon, and the New York office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Following law school, Mr. Wachen clerked for United States District Judge Jay C. Waldman in Philadelphia.

Mr. Wachen graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and chair of the Moot Court Board. He received his undergraduate degree in government from Dartmouth College, where he was also General Manager of the college's two commercial radio stations.

Before becoming a lawyer, Mr. Wachen worked in public relations as an account executive in New York at the international firm of Burson-Marsteller.

Mr. Wachen is the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lakewood Country Club, Rockville, MD.

April 13, 2012

Pivot Point Leadership

We have all experienced pivot points in our careers and our world of work. Once thing is certain - we’ll experience many more as we continue forward. In this interactive session, you will revisit your transition points and better understand the well worn path that we, as human beings, traverse as we face the uncertainty before us.

Drawing on a theme from Myron’s first novel, DREAM MAKERS – Escape from the Shadows of Fear, we’ll identify the physical, mental, and emotional states we face whenever we encounter CHANGE and our natural resistance to it. Along the way, you might discover what you value the most about your work and what you believe is your personal key to your success as a leader.

Take-Aways from this Session

Recognizing pivot points

Benefiting from change

Applying Pivot Point lessons to your leadership of others.

About Our Facilitator

Myron J. Radio is a four-time author and President of The R Group, a consortium of seasoned professionals who believe in the power of people and teamwork to drive results. The R Group specializes in helping clients transition through their Leadership, Team and Organizational “Pivot Points”.

Myron is recognized as an energetic speaker, facilitator, team builder and executive coach. His clients represent a broad range of global Fortune 500 companies and industries. He is a long standing member of Duke Corporate Education’s Global Learning Resource Network. The Financial Times and Business Week ranked Duke CE number one in the world for Custom Executive Education from 2003 to 2011. Prior to serving as President of the R Group, Myron was an executive with Mobil Corporation, now ExxonMobil.

Myron co-authored the books CHANGE AT THE CORE – Unleash The Power Of Your Team To Drive Results, PLUGGING INTO PASSIONS – How to leverage motivators at work to mobilize energy for change and INSIDE OUT, a book on personal and professional development. He most recently published his first inspirational novel, DREAM MAKERS – Escape from the Shadows of Fear. He has also published numerous position papers on organizational engagement, fulfillment and effectiveness.

March 2, 2012

The Agile Leader

Leadership is not an exact science. Sure, there are processes, principles, skills, techniques, and best practices to guide the leader. Often, they must 'call an audible', just like the quarterback in an NFL game, when she realizes that the planned play will not succeed.

Leaders must be agile to meet the challenges of conflict, resistive culture, company politics, and other barriers standing in the way of success. They must be ready to adapt volatile markets and ever changing conditions.

Leaders be flexible and adaptable, in short – agile. This entails understanding the nature of trust, leading by example, appreciating the effect of politics at work, having tough talks, developing a positive culture, and being open to change.

Steve Gladis, Ph.D., will touch on these and other issues as he takes us on an interactive journey to becoming more agile as leaders, drawing from his book The Agile Leader (published in 2011). With this foundation, he will facilitate in small groups how to have a tough talks with someone who matters to you and your business – successfully!

Take-Aways from this Session

What leads to agility

How the battle between an agile leader and the recession comes out

Tools for successful tough talks.

About Our Facilitator

Steve Gladisserves as president and CEO of Steve Gladis Leadership Partners, a leadership development firm focused on helping leaders achieve both success and significance through executive coaching, training and development, and motivational speaking.

At George Mason University, he teaches a Leadership Communication series to first-line and mid-level leaders. Author of 15 books on leadership and communication, Steve is a former member of the University of Virginia’s faculty and served as an Associate Dean and the Director of the University’s Northern Virginia Center.

He is currently an executive coach for the Darden Business School’s Executive MBA program. Dr. Gladis has his doctorate in education and is a certified coach with the International Coach Federation. A former FBI special agent and US Marine Corps officer, he is also a committed civic and academic leader.

Steve serves on the Executive Boards of both the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and The Community Foundation of Northern Virginia and is active in philanthropic activities in the Greater Metropolitan Washington, DC area. His company donates 25% of its annual net profits back to the community.

January 6, 2012

Crisis Management – Succeeding When The Unthinkable Happens

What happens when the routine is exploded by a crisis? Day-to-day plans are meaningless – normal operations are flash-frozen in place and resources are focused on overcoming the crisis – but the obligation to provide products or services for your customers does not simply disappear. How you manage the situation will determine whether your business can recover from the catastrophe, or be destroyed by it.

The Tylenol poisonings is a classic example: some lunatic laced bottles of Tylenol with poison in Chicago, killing several people. Johnson & Johnson responded immediately by pulling all bottles of Tylenol from the shelves country-wide. This almost bankrupted the company but the action stopped the deaths. Johnson & Johnson survived. It is perhaps one of the most trusted companies in the world as a result of how it managed the crisis.

Whether we must deal with weather/natural disasters, criminal activities, self-destructive knuckleheaded actions by key employees, or malicious external attacks, how we manage the unthinkable is critical to the future of our business.

In this interactive session, Herb Ezrin, President of Potomac Business Group, will share several examples of how organizations that have faced a near death experience, have overcome it and prospered.

Take-Away Nuggets From This Session:

·Critical elements of a crisis management plan

·Practical crisis avoidance techniques

·A framework for creating a stronger organization in the aftermath of surviving a crisis.

About Our Facilitator

Herbert S. Ezrin

President and CEO – Potomac Business Group

Herb Ezrin leads a global consulting firm with a specialty in investment banking and his primary focus is on M&A and Financial projects, providing the highest quality services through the insight and experience gained from his diverse background in accounting, law, real estate and venture capitalism.

He has practiced accounting and law, and has been involved in many business enterprises. Herb lectures on mergers and acquisitions issues and has written several articles on investment banking topics for the Washington Business Journal.

Herb is active in the Association for Corporate Growth and has been active with the University of Maryland Michael Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Mentor, the Macklin Institute at Montgomery College, and is a Maryland and D.C. Real Estate Licensed Broker. He is also active in many civic and charitable organizations.

A graduate of Benjamin Franklin University, American University, American University Washington College of Law, and Georgetown University College of Law, his degrees include: BCS, MCS, BA, JD and LLM in Taxation.

December 2, 2011

On Wednesday We Wear Pink: Eliminating the Perception that "7th Grade Mean Girls [and Boys] Work in HR"

Effective leaders make good use of the HR team – or outsource the function.

Think about this: the HR person is the first to welcome a prospective employee to the organization – and the last to send a departing employee on their journey. In between, HR provides assistance and current information on a broad range of issues – such as: Health benefits, employee relations, compliance, 401K plans, HRIS, organizational development and learning.

To be effective, an HR team must provide top level customer service, efficient and effective processes and procedures, and reduction of costs through savings opportunities in support of the organization's mission.

HR operates within a business structure, but the reality is, in many situations much effort is spent to minimize or avoid HR's participation – justifying this with a claim it lacks business savvy or business acumen.

Through discussion and insightful exercises, Al offers leaders ways to maximizing the HR contribution to the bottom line. “After all, you are paying for it, you should get first quartile results.”

Take-Away Nuggets From This Session:

How a positive attitude is infectious

Using an avatar (HR) to avoid a time wormhole about administrative topics.

About Our Facilitator

Alan A. Malinchak is a goal-driven leader with broad strategic and operational success in the private and public sectors, transforming organizations by crystallizing direction, addressing emergent issues, and executing tactics to improve and enhance performance. Al is currently the Chief Learning Officer at Homeland Security Solutions, Inc. (HSSI) and business development executive for instructor-led and eLearning training programs and initiatives. HSSI is a training company with established capabilities in instructional system design, eLearning content development and management, instructor led facilitation and proven agility to work with a customer’s internal subject matter experts. Al conducts keynotes, leadership development seminars/workshops and consultations regarding the administration and operation of corporate universities.

November 4, 2011

We live in a culture of clutter, clamor, and calamity exacerbated by a tolerance for divided attention, impersonal communication, and inhuman expectations. How can today’s leaders expand their capacity for clarity, vision, and inspiration? Brain science is demonstrating that an ancient practice prepares leaders to thrive in our post-modern world.

The simple-to-learn, no cost, and quick process of mindful meditation is proven to:

Increase:FocusIntuitionCompassionEQ Emotional IntelligenceImmune System ResponseFormation Of Positive HabitsAccuracy Of Self-Image.

Tony will present the evidence from Stanford, Harvard, and UCLA; share testimony from the CEOs of Medtronic, Time-Warner, and Silicon Graphics; then lead the group in an experience of centering.

Take-Away Nuggets From This Session:

Experiential view of the strong effect of mental centering for you and your team

Awareness of the impact of sensory and mental overload on productivity and results

Some simple techniques to use with your team to reduce stress and increase effectiveness.

About Our Facilitator

Tony Mayo is an experienced executive coach to top executives and their teams. He is a master of analogy and anecdote whose illustrations are as likely to come from his studies of brain science, high energy physics or eastern philosophy as from his years of management and sales in high-technology. Whether speaking from a platform, coaching one-on-one, or facilitating a workshop, Tony maintains a laser focus on his goal of helping people realize their dreams.

Tony completed high school and college in three years each, then earned his MBA from the University of Chicago at age twenty-one. He immediately started a business that he sold in 1982.

Tony has worked with Arthur Andersen & General Electric, founded boot-strap and venture-backed start-ups, and taught at the college, graduate, and executive levels. Tony is the sole inventor of US Patent #6,678,663. His most important activities today are family fun, working with top executives, and total health. All with one unifying purpose: to promote workplaces of humanity and prosperity where people can be productive and satisfied. Click here to read comments from clients.

October 7, 2011

Marketing in a Billion Channel Universe

One of the most influential social scientists of the 20th century, Herbert Simon, remarked that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Simon succinctly wraps up the challenges facing marketers and companies in the Internet era. Inundated by information and media from all sides, prospects and clients continue to tune out and ignore traditional marketing tactics and message.

Firms of all sizes (with clients of all sizes) struggle with the central question:

How do we effectively cut through all the noise to establish authentic dialogue and relationships and… make money?

First steps on the road to a Word-of-Mouth/Social Media marketing strategy.

About Our Facilitator

Jeremy Epstein: A “Marketing Navigator for the Attention Economy,” Jeremy helps companies prepare for and exploit the changes brought about by the advent of social technologies.

Jeremy spent almost 6 years at Microsoft developing revenue-driving communities and authoring one of Microsoft’s most successful marketing blogs (over 110k views/month).

A two-time entrepreneur, with international business experience in Germany and Japan, and a passionate technologist (don’t get him started!), Jeremy’s clients include Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Yes To Carrots, Global 360 (a 2010 Microsoft Partner of the Year), Pinstripe, and two NY Times best-selling authors, Dan Pink and Gretchen Rubin (who hit #1).

In addition to numerous keynote presentations around the US and the world (India, Brazil, Russia, Israel, Canada, Germany, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile), Jeremy has been a guest lecturer at NYU's Stern School of Business, the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business and Merrill School of Journalism, the Kogod School of Business at American University and Stevenson University.

A native of Washington, DC Jeremy is married to a former NYC Narcotics prosecutor (no, that’s not how they met) and has 3 children under the age of 7 (so coffee is a food group!).

Not that he has much time, but as a fun tidbit, Jeremy has a lapel pin collection that numbers over 700 (all categorized in Excel, of course!)

September 9, 2011:

Dealing With the Difficult or Toxic Employee – The Tools for Success

A disruptive employee can tax an organization's operational effectiveness, can drive away productive employees, and can expose the firm to greater legal liability.

How do you address this employee beyond the usual discipline and developmental programs to correct the problem?

Picture a technically gifted individual who terrifies fellow employees due to repeated behavioral outbreaks. To preserve this technical expertise, is the personal conduct understated or ignored? This approach does not solve the problem – it can actually magnify it to an organization-wide problem!

In this facilitated and interactive discussion, Mauricio will share powerful tools to successfully address the difficult or toxic employee and their effect on the work environment.

Take-Away Nuggets From This Session:

Identifying the difficult or toxic employee

Determining if the work environment has become toxic

How to deal with the toxicity

Tools to wipe out toxicity and the employee(s) causing it.

About Our Facilitator

Mauricio Velásquez is the President of The Diversity Training Group (DTG) in Herndon, VA. Mauricio serves as a diversity trainer, sexual harassment prevention trainer, executive coach, mentoring trainer, expert witness, and assists organizations with multicultural marketing, selling, and customer service.

Mr. Velásquez is a graduate of the University of Virginia (B.A. Economics and Psychology) and The George Washington University (M.B.A. Human Resource Management) and serves as an expert witness listed with the Technical Advisory Service for Attorneys (TASA). A nationally recognized author, his articles appear in publications such as American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) publications, the Managing Diversity newsletter, and Profiles in Diversity Journal.

Mauricio has taught college classes at American University, Johns Hopkins University, The George Washington University, and Howard Community & Baltimore City Community Colleges. He is founder of two new companies recently formed - Spanish Translation Services, LLC (STS) and Harassment Prevention Specialists, LLC (HPS).

Mauricio is a former human resource generalist and also served as a demographic researcher for the Internal Revenue Service where he first anticipated the rise of diversity inside and outside the workplace. He has had the good fortune to work with Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Peter F. Drucker, and Jerry Harvey. Mauricio credits much of his interest in human resource management and the earning of his MBA to their influences. He has trained more than a half million participants (employees, supervisors, managers, executives) in his 20-year career.

August 5, 2011:

Why Leaders Fail When Negotiating

What are the common pitfalls that leaders fall into during negotiations?

During this session, we will learn how to improve our negotiations skills.

Negotiation skills are critical in the business world as relationships are more important, yet few leaders have been trained in this discipline.

An effective negotiator will forge better agreements, gain more support and build stronger relationships.

Take-Aways From This Session:

How to get to agreement quickly & effectively

Creating support from all parties

Relationships = Repeat Business

About Our Facilitator

Glenn Faulkner, former senior officer of NASDAQ and the NASD, served as Executive Director of NASDAQ’s Business Development Department and Customer Service Operation. At NASDAQ, he managed all aspects of the business development process, including strategic planning, budgeting, sales management, customer service management, goal setting, measurement, coaching, and training.

He has a proven track record of building market share growth and retention in a highly competitive environment against one of the strongest brands in the world. He has more than 20 years of business experience including all types of negotiations in a business environment. He is an accomplished speaker and presenter.

His Wall Street management experience, plus his expertise in negotiations while a senior officer of a major financial organization, provides a unique combination of strengths for conducting sessions in persuasion and negotiations. He has conducted numerous negotiations sessions for companies ranging from the Fortune 50 to mid market companies. He has worked extensively across various functions of organizations and has conducted domestic and international sessions.

He received a B.S.B.A. in Economics from Florida Southern College, (awarded the Most Outstanding Economics Graduate distinction), and an M.S.B.A. in Finance from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Business.

July 8, 2011:

How The Right Talent Can Get You From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be

Every organization is a complex living organism – planning, reacting, adapting, evolving, growing, and shrinking in response to external demands and internal capabilities. Measuring capital and technological assets provide “hard” measures for planning. The ability to execute, however, depends on what were once considered “soft skills” and unreliable measures – human capabilities! Highly talented and motivated people are truly the ultimate competitive advantage and key to achieving your company’s objectives!

Discover Valuable Take-Away Messages:

Chart a Course for Success

Define an Effective Leader

Address the Talent Gap

Identify the True Strengths that Create Consistent Performance and a Happy Employee

Assess your Employees & Candidates Objectively and Scientifically

About Our Facilitator

Mike Matalone is the Founder and President of Excelsior Inc. With more than two decades experience as a successful entrepreneur and human capital management consultant, Mike has authored dozens of articles on the importance of having the right people in the right jobs as a fundamental driver of business growth and profitability. An award-winning speaker, Mike has delivered more than 200 workshops and presentations to business groups throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Prior to the founding of Excelsior, Mike spent five years as an executive coach and facilitator for TEC/Vistage International, the world’s largest CEO membership organization, and has held senior level roles in companies across a variety of industries. He is currently at work on a new book based on his popular workshop presentation ‘“People > Potential > Profits: The CXO’s Guide on How to Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be.”

June 3, 2011: Are Your Employees Getting Dumber and What is That Costing You? (or, How to Get the People Around You to Think the Way You Do).

If you find your staff, even long timers, making costly mistakes that surprise you, you can do something about it.

It has to do with how you interact with them, especially when things go wrong.

Dr. Jim Goldstein, creator of the Powerful Partnerships®Program, will show you ways to communicate that will foster partnership and critical thinking throughout your organization. Find out what you could save if everyone thought problems through the way you do.

Key Take Aways

How to better communicate your vision

Turning current mistakes into future successes

Ways to empower critical thinking

About the Facilitator

James M. Goldstein, Ph.D.

Dr. Jim Goldstein is an expert at creating Powerful Partnerships. As a speaker, author and coach he helps people recapture the joy, excitement and optimism they used to feel when their personal and work relationships began. He’s discovered why passion fades both at work and at home and shows people how to get it back.

Dr. Goldstein spent four years as a college professor and 14 years as a clinical psychologist in private practice. After working with hundreds of individuals, couples, and families, he realized that certain patterns of communication interfered with the development and maintenance of healthy relationships.

In response to the need for clear, concise, communication, he developed a process which allows people to speak truthfully without causing defensiveness or hurt feelings. He teaches this process in an 8-week teleseminar for couples called Powerful Partnerships®. He found that Powerful Partnerships has a transforming effect on relationships regardless of how long people have felt stuck or unhappy.

The program not only improves how couples and families function, but also has a major impact on leadership, teamwork and productivity in business.

Since 1993, he has been an executive coach to CEO’s and management teams of national corporations and top government managers helping them to enhance their experience of power, freedom and peace of mind while increasing productivity.

May 13 - Building a High Growth Professional Services Firm: The Leadership Challenge

Some firms grow 9X faster then their competitors, are 50% more profitable,and are 2-3X more valuable. How do you lead a firm to these extraordinary heights? That's the topic Dr. Lee W Frederiksen tackles based on his new book Spiraling Up:How to Build a High Growth, High Value Professional Services Firm. Dr Frederiksen is the Managing Partner of Hinge, an award winning branding and marketing firm.He is a psychologist,marketing expert and successful entrepreneur who has worked with such household names an American Express and Monster.com.

Key Take Aways

What factors drive extraordinary growth and profitability

What leaders of these firms do differently

What steps you can take to accelerate your growth

About our Speaker

Lee is Managing Partner at Hinge, a premier professional services branding and marketing firm. He brings over 30 years of marketing experience to the firm’s clients. Lee is a former tenured professor of psychology at Virginia Tech, author of numerous books and articles, and a successful entrepreneur. He’s started and run three high-growth companies, including an $80 million runaway success. Lee has worked with many global brands, including American Express, Time Life, Capital One, Monster.com and Yahoo!

APRIL 1 - The Changing Face of Leadership

Description

Today’s high performing leader understands that diversity is a leadership competency. No longer can a leader be “color blind”. Benefiting from difference requires seeing difference. Diversity is a core business topic that impacts the workforce, the workplace and ultimately the marketplace. This session will look at how changing demographics impact an organization’s ability to acquire talent and customers. How do you adapt your leadership style to effectively lead the 4 generations that are currently in the workplace today? How do you build an organizational culture that increases employee engagement and fosters creativity and innovation?

Key Take-Away’s

Attendees will leave able to answer three key questions about the topic of diversity:

What
it is?

Why
it matters?

What
to do?

About our Presenter

GARY A. SMITH

Gary A. Smith is cofounder and Senior Partner of Ivy Planning Group (Ivy), a 20-year-old management consulting and training company that specializes in strategy, diversity, leadership and change management.Consulting Magazinehonored Mr. Smith as one of the Top 25 Consultants of 2007.Profiles in Diversity Journalnamed him a Diversity Pioneer.Minority Business & Professionals Network, Inc. named Mr. Smith one of “Fifty Influential Minorities in Business”.He has over 25 years of strategy, technology and management consulting service to large private sector and government organizations.He has led numerous engagements to develop core business, technology, diversity, and marketing strategies leading to improved revenue performance, mission-critical improvements, and more effective customer service.Mr. Smith assists clients in solving problems.His skills in management, marketing, and information technology allow him to synthesize data to meet his clients' challenges.He has worked directly with corporate CEOs, executive teams, agency administrators, and senior officials to build strategies, facilitate challenging discussions, and achieve their organization’s vision.

Ivy is recognized as one of the Top 50 minority-owned companies by DiversityBusiness.com; Black Enterprise Magazine Emerging Company of the Year Finalist; and received the Working Woman magazine Entrepreneurial Excellence Award. Mr. Smith and his wife/business partner are profiled in DreamMakers: Putting Vision & Values to Work, a book that chronicles how leading edge organizations are able to succeed and realize their vision and values. Smith is profiled for building a premier strategy firm - one of the leading Black-owned management consulting firms in the country. Ivy has been featured in publications including USA Today, The Washington Post, Washington Business Journal, Working Woman, Diversity Journal and Black Enterprise.

Mr. Smith provides a cross-sector, cross-industry perspective. He has successfully developed and implemented strategies, led teams, and served the needs of a wide spectrum of clients; experiencing best practices in management consulting in multiple venues. His private sector clients include MetLife, Nike, L’Oreal, Lockheed Martin, Deloitte Consulting, Scripps Networks, BET, Verizon and Morgan Stanley. He has worked at the senior executive level with U.S. Departments of Treasury, Justice, Labor, State Department, PTO, USPS, D.C. Government and utilities including Pepco, WSSC, Progress Energy, and PSEG. His work with non-profits includes Special Olympics International and United Way. Mr. Smith’s clients benefit from his ability to quickly synthesize and to apply best practices across sectors and industries.

Mr. Smith co-founded Ivy Planning Group after a successful career managing sales, marketing, and technical organizations including IBM where he held Marketing and Technical positions; Amdahl Corporation as Account Executive; Masstor Systems as Director of U.S. Operations; Comdisco Inc. as Director of Federal Marketing; and Technical Software Services as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Smith is a member of the Yale Club of New York City, and his board service commitment includes the Boards of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, Lakewood Country Club, the Capital Chapter of Strategic Leadership Forum, The International Society for Strategic Management, and the Strategic Planning Board and Treasurer of Florida Avenue Baptist Church. Mr. Smith received the distinguished Torchbearer’s Award for Community Service from the Greater Washington Morehouse College Club.

A native of Washington, D.C., Mr. Smith was educated in the District’s public school system. Mr. Smith earned his Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Yale University. He lives in Maryland with his wife and business partner, Janet Crenshaw Smith. They have three sons.

March 4, 2011 – What Do I Do Now?

Session Overview

Ultimately, leadership is about taking action. Every leader will eventually find themselves in a situation where the thought, “What do I do now?”, comes to mind. When that thought occurs, action is usually needed immediately. Our March 4th Leadership Breakfast will provide an opportunity to apply your leadership philosophy and approach in several practical, real-time situations. You have an opportunity to understand how other leaders at the breakfast think about the same situation and might respond differently. We can also accommodate a couple of participant-provided situations.

Tangible Take-Aways for Attendees:

Experience practical and varied responses to leadership situations we face

Test the linkage between your leadership philosophy and application

About our Facilitator

Mike Schutta , Ph.D., PMP, MBB is the Senior Manager for Process and Innovation Performance at Accenture. Mike is an experienced consultant, project management and organizational development professional. He has provided process improvement/ Lean6sigma and business change management services such as, strategic planning, assessment and evaluation, executive and team development; and instructional systems design and training to government and commercial organizations. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Catholic University, Washington, DC and is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

Harnessing Your Web 2.0 Presence - Building and Using A Most Awesome Marketing Tool In Less Than An Hour A Day...And It's All Free!

Dick Davies is Present@DickDavies.com and the President of Sales Lab. Incorporated. He likes free. He built his first website in 1995 when AOL told him he had free website space attached to his paid AOL email, DickDavies@AOL.com. He still has the email address (free), but AOL went out of the website hosting business after 13 years.

Dick is a loud and frequent speaker. Two years ago he began studying Web 2.0 and Open Source Business models, built and sold an open source software company, and has given over a dozen presentations on this emerging technology paradigm http://www.dickdavies.com/presentations .